All of these technological innovations combined “represent $100,000 of value to the franchisee,” says Pendergast. Plus, since the building is considered a mobile structure, some franchisees elect to depreciate it over an accelerated time frame as equipment rather than a building. The fully modular stores are typically opened 90 days earlier than conventional stick-built locations. The advantages include the ability to control the upfront construction costs and to minimize the impact of weather and other events on completion. The first is a fully modular building in which both the interior and the exterior elements arrive fully assembled and are dropped onto a pre-prepared site. The new technology initiative for store construction adds three different technology approaches. market the best practices in construction that Church’s Chicken had learned from its international franchisees and improve on the original modular model. Pendergast and his team proceeded to translate into the U.S. This fast-track construction so accelerated opening time that Church’s Chicken looked to leverage it into other types of locations. The building elements delivered to the site had all exterior surfaces finished, windows installed, and with the assembly of the walls and roof, could be watertight within 24 hours. About 2½ years ago, Church’s Chicken debuted panelized construction for its free-standing stores. To deliver on this goal, Pendergast and his team have developed a major technology initiative addressing construction processes and methods. From an average of 17 new stores per year, Church’s Chicken saw 59 new stores open in 2007 and is forecasting between 60 and 70 new stores in 2008 in the U.S. The company reported system-wide sales of around US$878.8m in 2000.One of the challenges facing Church’s Chicken is accelerating an already rapid pace of store openings in the United States. Church’s currently operates more than 1,500 franchised restaurants in the US, Puerto Rico and eight other countries. Last year, Church’s also signed franchise development agreements to open restaurants in Venezuela, Ecuador, Panama, Jamaica, Bahamas, Aruba, Curacao, and St. Church’s made sense for us as they have global brand recognition, a streamlined operating system, and experienced support teams.” Kevin Hedderwick, COO for Steers Holdings, commented on the new agreement: “We were looking to add a high-quality, branded chicken restaurant chain to expand our current portfolio. Steers currently operates over 450 branded restaurant locations in South Africa, including hamburger chain Steers pizza chain Debonairs and seafood quick service restaurants FishAways. “Steers Holdings has the proven franchising expertise and infrastructure to make Church’s a tremendous success across Africa,” he said. Hala Moddelmog, president of Church’s, revealed that the company has sought the possibility for franchise development in Africa for a few years: “Church’s was searching for the right franchise partner to introduce the Church’s Chicken brand to Africa. The first restaurant, which is scheduled to open in South Africa by early April this year, will offer price-conscious menu items including American Southern-style fried chicken, sandwiches, and side items including Honey-Butter biscuits, jalapeno peppers, coleslaw, french fries, and mashed potatoes. The agreement allows Steers Holdings to subfranchise Church’s Chicken restaurants exclusively in 19 African countries South Africa, Mozambique, Swaziland, Zambia, Tanzania, Ghana, Botswana, Mauritius, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Uganda, Ivory Coast, Lesotho, Nigeria, Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, and Cameroon. Church’s Chicken, a division of AFC Enterprises, announced yesterday that it has signed a master franchise agreement with South African-based Steers Holdings to subfranchise the development and operation of 100 Church’s Chicken restaurants over the next five years.
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