News

Church's Chicken plays important role in post-hurricane Puerto Rico

January 24, 2018

Last September, Hurricane Maria left the island of Puerto Rico reeling. By the end of December, up to half of the island still reportedly did not have power. 

But a local Church's Chicken franchisee, South American Restaurants Corp., a holding of Larrea Group, said this week that now nearly all of its storm-ravaged locations there are open and able to provide hot meals and much-needed clean drinking water.

Of the 110 Church's restaurants SARCO operates on Puerto Rico, all but about 2 percent are now open for full service, a news release said. While many businesses have closed or decided to wait for the island to recover before resuming operations, SARCO has been active in rebuilding efforts since the hurricane, the company said.

"Following the storm, the very next day, we had people here in the office eager to go back to work at the restaurant," SARCO Vice President of Marketing Felipe Flores Rolón said in the release. "That was both exciting and unexpected — the level of commitment from our many restaurant employees. We all live here, so this is our community as well.

"As restaurants opened, our commitment was to serve the people — first, by having food and second, by being a place where families could come together. The food is a necessity and the place to come together is an anchor of normalcy — both give you the peace of mind and strength to go on. That is how Church's and the people of Puerto Rico have survived and how we will all continue to rebuild together."

The SARCO group, which has operated in Puerto Rico for nearly 40 years, made several decisions over the years that were intended to prepare their restaurants for hurricane conditions that threaten Caribbean islands from June through November each year. As a result, 10 Church's Chicken restaurants reopened the day after Hurricane Maria, and others quickly followed suit. SARCO also donated 35,000 hot meals, 120,000 bottles of water, and 50,000 gallons of diesel fuel to hurricane recovery efforts.

"SARCO is one of the largest and most respected franchisees in our system," Church's Chicken/Texas Chicken Executive Vice President of International Business Tony Moralejo said in the release. "Their mission is to 'Serve Happiness in Every Meal' and I can think of no greater demonstration of that commitment than their investment in backup generators, alternate water supplies, and programs to help displaced employees."

"We are a brand built on doing the right thing for our employees and our communities in good times, and even more so during tough times," Church's CEO Joe Christina said. "The team at SARCO invested heavily in infrastructure for those 'what-if' scenarios — and that planning has secured jobs and access to quality food in Puerto Rico in the aftermath of this extremely difficult hurricane season.

"I commend the entire team for their leadership and sense of urgency to do the right thing by securing the safety and welfare of our employees and their families — ultimately getting us back to business quickly and safely. In my career, I've never seen such an excellent example of working together."

Puerto Rico is the only market in the world where the Church's chain occupies the leading position in the chicken restaurant segment. In that market, Church's is distinguished by its selection of fresh chicken empanadas with chicharrón as well as its honey butter biscuits.

Worldwide, Church's and Texas Chicken, the chain's sister brand outside of the Americas, have a combined 1,600-plus locations in 27 countries and international territories, and system-wide sales of more than $1 billion.