Central American chicken chain plans Tennessee expansion

Pollo Campero, a fried chicken restaurant that began in Guatemala, has plans to expand across Tennessee. The fast food chain, whose menus include empanadas, yuca fries and plantains, already has locations in Nashville and Madison with a third opening this spring in Smyrna.

The company is seeking new franchise partners to grow in Middle Tennessee and add restaurants in the Memphis and Knoxville areas.

“The state has really attracted a lot of people from all over the U.S. And then we also saw that the Central American population had been increasing over the last 20 years,” said Blas Escarcega, Pollo Campero’s director of franchise development.

The first Pollo Campero opened in Gualtamela in 1971. The company brought its Central American flavors to the U.S. in 2002 with a location in Los Angeles, which is still open.

Pollo Campero now has 93 locations across the U.S. with plans to add 200 more over the next five years. The chain also has locations throughtout Latin America, the Caribbean, Europe and the Middle East.

Currently, only 15 of those Pollo Campero restaurants in the U.S. are franchises. The company hopes to increase the percentage of franchised locations. The growth in Tennessee will be through franchises, officials said.

The Nashville-area franchisee learned about Pollo Campero from their own workers who were Central American immigrants. While the chain targets states and neighborhoods with Latin American immigrant populations, it also wants to find more customers among other groups.

“We realize there’s only so many immigrants that can support it,” Escarcega said.

Todd A. Price is a regional report in the South for the USA Today Network. He can be reached at taprice@gannett.com.