This Fried Chicken Chain Is Going Through A Major Brand Overhaul

America loves that chicken from Popeyes, the nation’s number-two fast food chicken chain (second only to Chick-fil-A, per CNBC), but the Louisiana-born chicken empire is making some major changes to its American restaurants. In an earnings call with investors, as reported by Restaurant Dive, Popeyes revealed its plans to massively modernize the technology in front and back of house, while also remodeling stores and boosting advertising to drive sales back up after a somewhat disappointing 2024.

Popeyes intends for every U.S. restaurant to have fully revamped technology within 22 months, according to Restaurant Brands International CEO Josh Kobza. This includes (but is not limited to) cloud-based point-of-sale systems, order-ready boards for in-store customers who want to track their food’s progress, automatic batter makers, and improved hot holding units to keep batches of chicken warm. So far, about 85% of franchisees have committed to this plan.

New methods in back of house also call for new organization. Kobza also revealed that Popeyes franchisees will have the option to install a newly redesigned production line. Each store can exercise this option either when it receives the new equipment or during its next remodel.

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Over the next two years, Popeyes isn’t just aiming to modernize its U.S. restaurants’ technology. RBI CEO Josh Kobza revealed on the earnings call that 85% of Popeyes franchisees have also committed to boosting their marketing budgets as yet another prong to drive customers back to Popeyes.

As a restaurant, Popeyes is not short on acclaim. Popeyes was a favorite of the late Anthony Bourdain, its Cajun turkey is a Thanksgiving legend, and the Louisiana chain also helped spark the Chicken Sandwich Wars, which defined an era in fast food. Yet despite all this impact, Popeyes reported that sales growth lagged significantly in 2024. Its growth shrunk from over 6% in Q1 (after multiple quarters of growth) to just 0.6% in Q2, and it actually went negative by almost four points in Q3.

The new changes coming to your local Popeyes are meant to reverse this surprisingly low sales growth, which rounded out at 0.6% for all of 2024. To help, RBI is also increasing its ad spend and offering a $4,000 ad credit to each franchised restaurant.

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