Zaxby's
More fast food and more chicken on the way.
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Not balking at expansion: Zaxby’s plans 28 chicken restaurants in OKC area
By: Molly M. Fleming The Journal Record December 3, 2014 0
OKLAHOMA CITY – Georgia-based franchisee Sterling Coleman has signed Zaxby’s largest single agreement, which will bring 28 fast casual chicken restaurants to the Oklahoma City metro area over the next five to seven years.
“We’ve been looking at that market for quite some time,” said Robert Baxley, chief operating officer of the Athens, Georgia-based company. “We felt like it was an important market for us. We were very fortunate to attract the interest of Sterling Coleman.”
Coleman has been with Zaxby’s in Georgia for 11 years, with stores in Cobb, Clayton and Fulton counties, near Atlanta. Zaxby’s offers prepared-at-order chicken fingers, wings, sandwiches, salads, appetizers and nine different sauces, ranging in spiciness from wimpy to nuclear and insane.
“For me to be able to expand and grow the way I want to with this brand, I have to figure out what state I want to go into,” Coleman said. “I looked at some of the faster-growing cities in the Midwest and I thought that Oklahoma City would be a great place to come and do business in the quick-service market.”
Coleman has purchased a former Long John Silver’s property at 1839 W. Main St. in Norman, and will demolish the building to construct a new restaurant. The store is expected to open in summer 2015. The Oklahoma stores will be among the company’s first with its new farmhouse design concept.
Coleman plans to build three to four stores in 2015, four to five stores in 2016, and complete his expansion in several years.
“The goal is to get 28 up in six years,” he said. “Five years would be even better.”
He said he likes to build his stores from the ground up, though he has renovated an existing restaurant.
In the last few years, Oklahoma has seen Raising Cane’s expand in Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Broken Arrow, and Owasso. Coleman said the two companies often exist in the same market, and there’s room for both. Zaxby’s is not a stranger to being in the same market as a quick-service chicken restaurant chain, sharing a home state with Chick-Fil-A.
“If there’s a good chicken market, we feel like we could play or do well in those markets,” Coleman said. “We feel like we’ll really come in and make a big splash.”
Baxley said his company does not compete directly with Cane’s; rather, they complement each other.
“There’s room for everybody,” he said. “We have more variety. It opens us up to a larger demographic when people can have a lot of options. We have a broader customer base and a broad catering menu.”
Nationwide, Zaxby’s is expanding west as it approaches its 25th anniversary. It started its expansion in 2007 in Texas, and then into Utah, where it has four locations. The company has more than 600 stores, owning and operating 20 percent, with the rest operated by franchisees.
The Norman store won’t be the first Zaxby’s in the state. By December’s end or early January, Ben Williams Sr. and his son, Ben Williams Jr. will open their Tulsa store, 6995 S. Mingo Rd.
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