Following the major grand opening of Huey Magoo’s new corporate drive-thru training restaurant in Orlando, Florida last month – Huey Magoo’s 60th store company-wide with over 265 in the pipeline – President & CEO Andy Howard chats with RestaurantNews.com on the exciting momentum of the popular, fast-growing brand known as the “Filet Mignon Of Chicken”.
What’s the latest on growth?
Our recent grand opening in the Lake Nona region of Orlando, Florida marked the 60th Huey Magoo’s restaurant spanning 11th states with hundreds more franchises sold now in 13 states nationwide. Our original strategy was the South and Southeast, and now with Ohio, Missouri and Arizona coming, it’s now based on franchisees background and experience, and we are open to locations anywhere around the country. We’ve gotten a lot of interest from a lot of areas. The phones are constantly ringing, and we are talking to dozens of franchise prospects all of the time.
What’s trending and exciting?
We are so spot right on with what’s trending. People are looking for bold flavors, and that’s why we have a variety of sauces and dips like our popular Sweet Heat, Garlic Parmesan, Lemon Pepper and Buffalo. Unique and bold are what people love. There’s so much on the Food Channel now. People are more educated about food in general than they’ve ever been before. Our tenders are so special and unique. We provide a great variety to the consumer with our hand breaded and grilled combinations in salads, sandwiches, wraps and tender meals.
Talk about a promo item, what’s unique, etc.?
We offer quarterly lemonade specials like our delicious strawberry and apple cider flavors, and we have a very exciting new tender menu item coming soon!
What are your plans for the future?
The company keep growing, and that’s through picking quality franchisees and growing our corporate staff to support our expanding franchise community. The brand is hot. It’s working. We are the “Filet Mignon Of Chicken”! We will keep following our mission of operating great franchises and real estate. We have something great on our hands, just crossing 60 restaurants, 80 by the end this year, and with over 100 in 2025, get ready for a big celebration!
Tell us a bit about Huey Magoo’s franchise opportunity and the ideal franchisee.
We are looking for strong, financially qualified restaurant operators with a three-store minimum, no maximum, opening over a three-year period. Ideal franchisees must have multi-unit restaurant operations experience and organization in place with other non-chicken brands. They’re looking for a second brand to develop and have a passion and love for Huey Magoo’s like we all do! We are very fortunate that most of our existing franchisees fit this bill perfectly. Becoming a Huey Magoo’s franchisee is a life changing event for anyone who gets involved. This changes your life positively, financially and in the community.
Huey Magoo’s is at the right place at the right time for a lot of growth. The category of chicken is outselling beef by a mile. People are eating more boneless chicken than ever before. We are unique and different from the competition. We have the best quality, best tasting chicken tenders out there, and as one of our favorite songs says, there “Ain’t No Stoppin’ Us Now”!
For more information and a complete list of locations, visit HueyMagoos.com. For franchising inquiries, visit HueyMagoos.com/franchising or contact Andy Howard at andy@hueymagoos.com.
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