Operations

Church's Chicken to open 100 restaurants, hires international business development director

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March 2, 2022

Texas Chicken and Church's Texas Chicken is expecting to open 100 restaurants in 2022 throughout the Americas, the Middle East and Southeast Asia. The brand's major growth markets for this year include Canada, Mexico, Malaysia, Thailand and Saudi Arabia, according to a press release.

The company has tapped Ignacio Barbadillo as director, international new business development, based in Madrid. Bringing more than two decades of leadership and franchise relations experience, Barbadillo most recently served as global development leader at General Mills- Haagen-Daz Shops where he led global development strategy and focused on franchise recruitment to drive growth. In his role at Texas Chicken and Church's Texas Chicken, Barbadillo will be responsible for sourcing franchise groups to continue the expansion of Texas Chicken and Church's Texas Chicken growth internationally.

"We are thrilled to welcome Ignacio, an industry standout whose deep expertise will support our continued efforts to develop meaningful franchise relationships and drive increased market share, unit growth and EBITDA," Russ Sumrall, senior vice president, international strategic development for Church's Texas Chicken and Texas Chicken Brands, said in the release. "He has already jumped right in with the strategic insights and energetic passion that will move us forward as we look to extend our solid reputation as a competitive leader in the chicken QSR space around the world."

"Quick service chicken is a fast-growing segment with tremendous opportunity for growth in almost every corner of the world," Barbadillo said in the release. "Our differentiated, high-quality product along with the company's ambitious plans for growth and the genuine love its people have for the brand are what attracted me to this incredibly exciting role."