Starbird has 17 locations in California.
This article is part of “Where Are They Now?”—an ongoing series in which Franchise Times managing editor Emilee Wentland and reporter Alyssa Huglen catch up with emerging brands.
Starbird Chicken keeps on cluckin’.
The California-based chicken franchise now touts 17 stores throughout the state, up from 12 units in late 2022. An 18th restaurant is in store for early 2025, and CEO Aaron Noveshen said Starbird expects to open another five to seven units next year.
All but one of its restaurants are corporate owned (there’s a licensed store in the San Francisco International Airport) but next year’s locations will be franchisee operated, Noveshen said.
“The main growth is really all coming from franchising,” he said, with development deals signed in Denver, Seattle and Utah.
Five new openings in two years is a slower growth rate than many ambitious competitors in the restaurant space, but that slow-and-steady approach has its advantages.
“We’re not in a rush,” Noveshen said.
Finding franchisees who are a good match for the chicken concept takes priority, he said, and closing multi-unit deals takes time. “We needed to find people who were experienced, well capitalized and had a deep understanding of the trade areas in which we are partnering. So that kind of limits our pool,” he said.
Two years ago, Noveshen said Starbird was focusing on opening ghost kitchens as well as traditional restaurants. Today, ghost kitchens are “not the hype of the story,” Noveshen said. “We continue to be successful in that, but it’s not a rapid growth strategy for us.”
Leading this franchise development effort is Brian Carmichall, the vice development of real estate and development at Starbid. He joined the brand in September after working on the development teams at El Pollo Loco and Dunkin’.
Since Franchise Times last did a deep dive on the brand, Starbird’s been working on automation and technology, restaurant design and limited time offerings. Those LTOs include California golden barbecue chicken, which “was a huge hit … which helped allow for some greater margins on a premium product, Noveshen said.
Another launch was Starbird’s chicken nuggets, which do double duty as the company’s boneless wings.
“We were able to drive increased sales of a new menu category while actually simplifying operations,” he said. “We ended up removing a category from the menu that was selling okay and replaced it with something that sold double the volume with substantially better margins.”
About 85 percent of Starbird’s orders come from digital channels. The franchise added more kiosks in its restaurants and created pick-up windows for third-party delivery drivers to pick up orders without stopping inside, which alleviates dining room congestion.
None of the restaurants have drive-thrus, but Starbird is looking into drive-thru technology, like voice ordering, while keeping its drive-up window approach.
Thanks to ergonomic changes in its kitchens, Starbirds service times are down 28 percent, Noveshen said.
Average unit volume is more than $4 million. Noveshen called the brand’s restaurants “very productive boxes” with average sales per square foot hovering around $2,000 per square foot.
That $4 million mark is an impressive feat, with other franchises like chicken powerhouse KFC doing closer to $1.1 million on average and Popeye’s coming in at about $1.5 million in 2023. Chick-fil-A, which has a cult following for its chicken offerings and friendly customer service, has an AUV of more than $7.5 million. KFC has nearly 30,000 units worldwide and Chick-fil-A has about 3,000—much heavier presences than Starbird’s.
The initial investment required to open a Starbird franchise ranges from $1.1 million to $1.5 million.