Founded in Atlanta in 1992 as AFC Enterprises, Inc., the Company is a developer, operator and franchisor of quick-service restaurants (“QSRs” or “restaurants”) under the trade name, Popeyes® Louisiana Kitchen and Popeyes® Chicken & Biscuits. In January 2014, AFC Enterprises, Inc. changed its corporate name to Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen, Inc. and is traded on Nasdaq under the ticker symbol “PLKI”.
The Popeyes® brand was founded in New Orleans, Louisiana in 1972 and is the world’s second largest quick-service chicken concept (based on the number of units). Within the QSR industry, Popeyes distinguishes itself with a unique “New Orleans” style menu that features spicy chicken, chicken tenders, fried shrimp and other seafood, as well as jambalaya, Red Beans and Rice and other regional items. Popeyes is a highly differentiated QSR brand with a passion for its Louisiana heritage and flavorful authentic food.
Popeyes serves food the world craves and is continuing to expand its global reach. The Company operates and franchises over 2,000 Popeyes restaurants worldwide. Of the 1,600 domestic franchised restaurants, approximately 70% are concentrated in Texas, California, Louisiana, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, New York, Georgia, Virginia and Mississippi. Of the nearly 400 international franchised restaurants, approximately 55% are located in Korea, Canada and Turkey. More than 90% of the company-operated restaurants are concentrated in Louisiana and Tennessee.
Our business strategy, announced at the beginning of 2008, capitalizes on our strengths as a highly franchised restaurant system. The model provides diverse and reliable earnings with steady cash flow, and relatively low capital spending requirements. Over the last five years, the cash flow produced by our model has primarily been used to pay down debt and repurchase stock to enhance shareholder value.
Our strategy is built on the foundation of aligning and collaborating with our stakeholders, and is focused on the five pillars of our Strategic Plan listed below. We believe our execution of these proven strategies will continue to deliver positive results, making Popeyes more competitive and better positioned to gain market share and accelerate long-term growth.
To date, we have built a strong foundation for our domestic business. Going forward, our initiatives will remain focused on the same five successful strategies: create a culture of servant leaders, build a distinctive brand, run great restaurants, grow restaurant profits, and accelerate quality restaurants. We will build on this success by using the same Strategic Roadmap for our international business including making investments that we believe will help drive guest traffic, improve guest satisfaction, and strengthen our unit economics. This is the essential foundation for accelerating unit growth around the globe.
The Company’s strategic plan focuses on the five pillars below which management believes are proven strategies for growing a high performance restaurant chain.