As longtime Bojangles franchisee Jeff Rigsby prepared to open the first of 15 restaurants in Ohio, his initial reaction to entering a new market with a boneless chicken menu still in its infancy was simple: No.
“When I first thought about it, I said, I don’t think we’ll launch in Columbus without bone-in chicken,” said Rigsby, who with 120 restaurants in six states is the brand’s largest franchisee. “But I went and looked at the test platform and saw an opportunity to do a scaled down menu, which eliminates some operational challenges.”
Since the debut in 2023 of his two restaurants in the Columbus area, the first in Ohio for Bojangles, Rigsby said the decision to go boneless despite the brand being built on bone-in fried chicken was the right move. “We’re five months in and we’re still doing big volumes,” he said.
“Our bone-in chicken in our core markets is a staple,” continued Rigsby, who in addition to Ohio operates locations of the Charlotte, North Carolina-based brand across Georgia, Kentucky, South Carolina, Tennessee and its home state. “But sales had stayed level and demand for boneless products has really increased.”
With 120 restaurants in his portfolio, Jeff Rigsby is Bojangles’ largest operator.
The menu in particular spotlights chicken tenders—including 12-, 16- and 20-piece tender family meals instead of traditional chicken legs and thighs—along with chicken biscuit sandwiches, plus what Rigsby called the “best breakfast offering.” Customers, he acknowledged, have been asking about the absence of bone-in chicken selections, which he addressed with staff training to explain the change and more marketing around the boneless offerings.
“People in Ohio were very familiar with Bojangles because people have vacationed in the Carolinas,” he said. “People came at dinner expecting bone-in chicken, but once they tried the tenders … it’s all about getting people to try the food.”
Bojangles, which has more than 800 locations, began testing the boneless chicken menu in 2021 at restaurants in Memphis, Tennessee, and later Orlando, Florida, as part of an expansion strategy that’s sought to bring its Southern flavors to new markets. It also introduced its Genesis store prototype with digital menu boards, dual drive-thru lanes and a configuration to align with a new staffing model that includes more training to help new locations “go high volume very quickly,” said Chief Development Officer Jim Cannon.
“The menu is very much configured around how to operate the restaurants more efficiently and speed of service, especially through the drive-thru,” said Cannon. “What does every franchisee want? They want a simplified operation.”
Average gross sales for franchise restaurants with the bone-in chicken menu hit $2.3 million for the 52-week period from August 22, 2022, to August 20, 2023, the company reported in Item 19 of its amended franchise disclosure document. That FDD also notes average sales for two company-owned restaurants with only the boneless menu were $3.49 million for the same reporting period.
Jim Cannon joined Bojangles as chief development officer in June 2023.
Bojangles benefits from three solid dayparts, added Cannon, with 37 percent of sales coming at breakfast. “Very few chicken brands have as strong of a breakfast as we do,” he said.
In addition to Rigsby’s planned total of 15 units in Ohio, Bojangles last year signed a 20-store deal with LVP Restaurant Group to take the brand to Las Vegas. It now has six locations in key expansion markets of Dallas and San Antonio, which also serve the boneless menu, and Cannon said the brand just signed an agreement with new franchisee Foodster Fusion to develop five stores at travel centers in Texas.
This year, Bojangles expects to open 50 new stores, both corporate and franchised. The company operates 280 restaurants and will continue to build its own units, something Cannon said franchisees appreciate.
“We’re feeling the same things they’re feeling,” he said. “We’re operators, too.”
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Rigsby, who’s been in the Bojangles brand for more than 20 years, said about 70 of his restaurants have been ground-up builds, including the newest ones in Ohio, and while that’s his preference, it’s increasingly expensive to do.
“It’s very much a challenge,” he said. “You’ve got interest rates, construction costs going up. Ground values going up. You’ve got to be real particular where you build at, and you really have to optimize operations.”
In 2023, Rigsby’s network of restaurants surpassed $200 million in revenue, and he attributed much of his success to a deep commitment to his employees and support within the markets where he operates.
“I grew up in this business. I started when I was 16 years old,” he said. “We take care of our people and the communities that we’re in. We want to run great restaurants. We really focus on that in training, and people take pride in that.”
As Bojangles looks for opportunities to simplify operations, such as with the rollout of Bo-Linda, its artificial intelligence platform for drive-thru ordering, Rigsby said he aims to balance removal of some complexity without losing touch with the guest.
“We have to operate better than our competitors and keep the brand relevant,” he said. “We feel committed to helping the brand grow because then we all win.”
The Genesis prototype from Bojangles, this one in Sanford, Florida, is the newest look for the brand.