Raising Cane's Plans to Open More Than 90 New Stores This Year
Caniacs, rejoice! After seeing explosive growth throughout 2023 with 100 store openings and the debut of a flagship location in New York City's Times Square, Raising Cane's plans to continue expanding at a breakneck pace in 2024.
The southern chain—known for its signature chicken fingers (130 calories apiece), Texas toast (140 calories), crinkle-cut fries (390 calories), and famous Cane's sauce (190 calories)—is on pace to open a whopping 90 new locations this year, QSR Magazine reported. This expansion push should help Raising Cane's end the year with more than 850 restaurants and further cement its status as one of America's largest chicken chains.
Cane's has already made significant progress on its growth plans since the start of the year. It opened 13 new restaurants in January alone across Washington D.C., Florida, Indiana, Illinois, Rhode Island, New Jersey, New York, Virginia, Ohio, Arizona, Tennessee, and California. The chain followed that up with 10 additional openings in February—including its first-ever Connecticut location—and four more the following month. That brought its total store count to 788 at the end of March.
Looking ahead, Raising Cane's is planning to open a new flagship restaurant in Nashville this year. Additionally, it's working to add more New York City locations and reach the 20-store milestone in Florida (the restaurant's website currently lists 15 Sunshine State locations).
Despite a new California $20 minimum wage—which has resulted in rising fast-food prices, worker layoffs, and even speculation that recent restaurant closings are due to the wage hike—Cane's is also looking to open 20 to 25 new stores in the state this year and nearly 50 over the next 18 months, QSR Magazine reported. The chain has more than 350 total restaurants in its growth pipeline, so fans can expect to see plenty of additional growth from the brand after 2024.
Solid financial results are backing up this big expansion push. Raising Cane's has seen 62 consecutive quarters of positive same-store sales, including a notable 15.1% rise in the first quarter of 2024, per QSR Magazine. The chain also saw an 11.4% boost in guest counts during the quarter.
Raising Cane's isn't the only popular chicken restaurant that will end 2024 with a much bigger footprint. Beloved regional chain Bojangles currently has hundreds of new stores in development, including its first-ever locations in California, Arizona, and Nevada. Pollo Campero, Krispy Krunchy Chicken, Bonchon, and Wingstop are among the other chicken chains that are also expanding aggressively right now.
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