Guatemalan chicken chain Pollo Campero eyes expansion in Minnesota

Fried-chicken fans routinely drive hundreds of miles from Nebraska or Iowa to a Guatemalan fast-food restaurant in West St. Paul.

That’s no surprise, since devotees are also known to bring home massive bags of Pollo Campero chicken when flying back from Central America.

Now, more than a decade after the first and only Pollo Campero in Minnesota opened its doors, the chicken chain wants to put another nine locations around the franchise-friendly Twin Cities, with a new location in Brooklyn Center on track to open by the end of this year.

Nationwide, Pollo Campero plans to grow from 92 locations to 300 in the next five years.

“We have seen an influx of Central Americans in the community who are fanatics of the brand; when we bring it closer to home, they get excited,” said Blas Escarcega, the company’s vice president of franchise development. “But once people taste our product for the first time, they become fans too.”

For the uninitiated, Pollo Campero is like the McDonald’s of Central America — found and eaten just about everywhere. Among Guatemalans and Salvadorans, it has developed the same kind of devotion Californians have for In-N-Out Burger.

Minnesota is home to at least 350,000 people of Latin American descent, a majority of whom are of Mexican origin. As the state and region welcome more Central American immigrants, Escarcega said it makes sense to expand to meet the growing demand. But the broader market is also ready to embrace sides of yuca fries or plantains with zesty chicken.

“Twenty years ago, people weren’t eating as many spicy items as they do now,” he said. “There’s a different palate now, and that’s what the differentiator is. People like to taste flavors of the world, and this is a chance to do that.”

On the heels of the great chicken sandwich wars that have reshaped menus in recent years, there’s plenty of competition in the $59 billion fast-food poultry market. All that sparring between Popeyes and Chick-fil-A helped drive chicken consumption, and production, to all-time highs.

Americans consume, on average, 68 pounds of chicken per person annually, a figure that has doubled since 1980, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Since 2000, chicken consumption has passed pork and more recently beef to become the most-consumed meat in American diets.

A more pressing competition for any franchise is the ability to hire in a tight labor market.

“Finding, recruiting and retaining quality employees remains a challenge for brands across the spectrum, restaurants or anyone else,” said Jeff Hanscom, a spokesman for the International Franchise Association. “It definitely makes it harder for owner-operators to continue expanding.”

Minnesota has more than 14,000 franchise businesses, according to the association, accounting for 152,000 jobs.

“Things are going well in Minnesota, from a franchise business perspective,” Hanscom said. “It continues to offer entrepreneurship opportunities to people from all walks of life.”

The speed at which Pollo Campero grows here depends in part on partnering with franchisees. The company is opening corporate-run locations elsewhere but has marked Minnesota for franchise development.

“Now that we know the affinity people have for the brand, we’re trying to make it conveniently located across the U.S.,” Escarcega said.

Even after the chain expanded into the U.S. decades ago, folks will still bring bags full of chicken onto airplanes back after visiting Guatemala or El Salvador. One such fan told the Los Angeles Times in 2021: “What gets me every time is just that feeling of home.”

That kind of free marketing is often enough to bring in customers who don’t have a nostalgic connection. Then after the first taste: “I don’t want to say it’s addictive, but it’s flavorful and unique,” Escarcega said. “People really love this food.”