Kiplingers Personal Finance

16 KIPLINGER’S PERSONAL FINANCE^ 05/

AHEAD

ALEX MARTINEZ

What’s Chicken Salad Chick?

We do chicken salad, and

we are a “chicky” place.

We have 65 restaurants from

Texas to Florida to Virginia.

What’s the appeal? Chicken

salad is comfort food. It

makes you feel nostalgic

and think of home. We

serve 15 varieties named for

the chicks in my life—women

who have positively inf lu-

enced me. Our “Olivia’s

Old South” is named for

my grandmother, who

made her chicken salad

with sweet pickle and hard-

boiled egg. We also serve

soup, sandwiches, sides

and desserts. To me, eating

is a social activity, so our

décor is designed to culti-

vate conversation.

You started at home? In 2007,

I was a stay-at-home mom

of three young children.

After a divorce, I racked my

brain: How would I support

my family? I was obsessed

with chicken salad and

tasted it wherever I trav-

eled. I thought, What if I

could come up with a really

good chicken salad, make

it at home and deliver it? I

went to work in my kitchen,

tried the results on every-

one I knew and tweaked

the recipe until I had a hit.

I sold it to neighbors and

teachers at my children’s

school, and within three

weeks I had more business

than I could handle.

But there was a hitch? It was

a blessing. In October 2007,

the county health inspector

told me that it was illegal

to sell home-cooked food

to the public and that I

had to shut down. By then

I had partnered with Kevin

Brown, a family friend who

was savvy about business,

and we decided to open a

restaurant. We leased a tiny

shack for $800 a month and

spent our own money to

turn it into a take-out

place. On opening

day in January

2008, we made

40 pounds of

chicken salad

and sold out

in two hours,

and on the

second day we

sold twice as

much in the same

time. We never looked

back. Kevin and I be-

came best friends, and

we married that year.

How did you grow? We

opened two more res-

taurants in Auburn

to handle demand.

Then we targeted

Eagle Merchant Partners,

of Atlanta, believed in what

we do, valued our core

values, respected what we

had built and didn’t want

to change it. We accepted

their offer in May 2015.

They bought majority own-

ership and infused more

capital. In 2016, we had

revenue of $12.4 million.

Your role now? Kevin passed

away from cancer in 2015.

I still have a share of own-

ership, and I’m financially

secure. Now, I’m the com-

pany’s brand voice to make

sure we stay true to who

we are.

What’s the goal? We want to

be the best chicken salad

in the nation. The cost to

establish a franchise,

depending on square

footage, runs from

$400,000 to

$550,000 per

restaurant. We

hope to have

200 restau-

rants by

2020.

Are you sick of

chicken salad? I

was when I was

the one cooking it.

I probably didn’t

eat it for a year and a

half. When I got back

to it, I thought, Darn,

this is good. Really good.

PATRICIA MERTZ ESSWEIN

Sharing a Taste of the South

SUCCESS STORY

Her obsession with chicken salad launched a franchised fast-casual restaurant.

PROFILE

WHO: Stacy Brown, 42

WHERE: Auburn, Ala.

WHAT: Founder, Chicken Salad Chick

other college towns. Visiting

parents would ask, “What

do we have to do to get

one of these in Little Rock

or Tuscaloosa?” Franchise

requests poured in. We

secured a local partner and

investor and built our fran-

chising infrastructure.

We got a lot of press, and

many private-equity com-

panies came knocking. We

turned away all but one.