Birdcall Intends to Become the Next Chicken Success Story

The chain plans to open 100 locations over the next five years. (read full article here)

Birdcall—an emerging 17-unit chicken chain out of Colorado—is quickly expanding.

The fast casual plans to open almost 100 locations in six states over the next five years. The initial pipeline will primarily focus on Midwestern states, such as Indiana, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, and Wisconsin.

VP of franchise development Justin Livingston says it’s a matter of right concept, right place, and right time.

He sees consumers becoming tighter with their spending. And if a brand earns their money, “it better be an amazing experience,” he adds. That means putting the customer first and considering the impact of staffing, ingredients, and community.

Then throw in the ongoing chicken wars that have elevated the protein into the stratosphere.

“We’re in both of those. We’re in that elevated fast casual, we’re in that chicken space, and, and we’ve got a really cool vibe, cool technology, cool customer experience, and so it’s just this perfect storm now of a concept with a huge depth of pitch from a franchising standpoint and an amazing diverse, high quality product offering and an environment that’s very customer-centric,” Livingston says.

Currently, the chain is open in Colorado, Arizona, and Texas. Birdcall is known for its selection of all-natural chicken sandwiches, including a rotating LTO (from July to August, it’s the K-Pop, comprised of crispy chicken dipped in Korean BBQ glaze, topped with Korean chili flakes, sliced scallions, and kimchi coleslaw). The menu also features hand-cut tenders and nuggets—alongside 17 sauces and dressings—and specialty salads, sliders, and wraps. Select locations open early and offer a breakfast menu.

Of Birdcall’s Midwestern expansion, as many as 30 will come to Ohio, as many as 18 in Missouri, 10–15 in Indiana, five to seven in Kansas, seven to 10 in Nebraska, and 10–14 in Wisconsin.

About a month after this announcement, Birdcall confirmed a five-unit deal for Indianapolis, with franchisee Nikunj Patel, who also owns multiple Nekter Juice Bar outlets in Chicagoland.

Livingston, who is a Midwest native, says there is pent-up demand for what Birdcall is offering. Plus, the cost to do business is comparably lower than, say, New York, California, or the brand’s home state of Colorado.

“You’ve got the density, you’ve got the commuters, you’ve got the community, you’ve got the family-friendly, you’ve got the teams, you’ve got all the things that make a good customer base for us that seems to be just waiting for something like this,” Livingston says. “It’s just a little bit more, a little bit extra, a little bit something they can feel good about. But you can do it for less. Not substantially in some markets, but less of a barrier of entry. So if we can reduce that runway for franchisees and offer what we’re offering to an amazing pool of customers, then it just allows people to expand that much quicker and to impact that many more communities and to offer that many more jobs.”

Unlike others in the quick-service space that have downsized, Birdcall seeks 2,300 square feet of space and indoor and outdoor seating for 125 to 150 customers. Several locations have vintage arcade games; one unit in Phoenix has a small putt-putt course.

The brand will mostly focus on freestanding locations, but will also look into endcaps with drive-thrus and nontraditional spaces in airports, college campuses, amusement parks, and other venues.

“There’s some flexibility for a franchisee that allows them to find the perfect space without being caged into these criteria that perhaps would reduce their ability to be successful because it was just outside of this box that we’ve created,” Livingston says.

Birdcall is scheduled to open its first franchised location in Starkville, Mississippi, where Mississippi State University is based. More are coming up in Boise, Idaho, and the Denver metro area.

The Mississippi restaurant is next door to a theater venue, giving it a unique vibe for the college crowd.

“We talked about the flexibility. This is a great example of that. Do we say, ‘Hey, let’s go next to a theater in a college town?’ Not necessarily, but there are the right people. It’s the right time. It’s a really cool location, so we’re excited about that.”

Meanwhile, Boise is controlled by experienced franchisees who will likely “open a bunch simultaneously, one right after the other.”

“For us it’s about supporting their efforts to find locations, getting all the relationships set up, getting the training set up, having them here to work in the stores, training their managers,” Livingston says.

Birdcall’s franchise recruitment process begins with cultural alignment rather than financial qualifications. The brand looks for operators who embrace its customer-first and community-first philosophy and who demonstrate a genuine enthusiasm for the concept and its mission. He describes the process as a mutual evaluation, with both sides determining whether there’s a strong fit and whether prospective franchisees will be good stewards of the brand.

He says Birdcall’s unit economics and investment-to-revenue profile have attracted experienced franchise operators, with much of the development pipeline consisting of multi-unit and multi-brand franchisees seeking to expand into the chicken segment. While the company also works with first-time franchisees and professionals transitioning from corporate careers, Livingston says the majority of prospective partners are seasoned operators drawn to Birdcall’s performance metrics, culture, and experienced leadership team.

The corporate infrastructure has decades of collective restaurant experience from the likes of Starbucks, QDOBA, Red Robin, and Subway. This gives Livingston the ultimate confidence that Birdcall is prepared for all of the expansion ahead.

“We’re in this amazing position to be able to build this amazing, incredible best-in-class depth of bench with some people that I have a tremendous amount of respect for who’ve been in the industry for decades upon decades, and be able to then welcome in franchisees with a level of support that every franchisee should have,” Livingston says.