Popeyes Chicken – the fried chicken brand, which entered the UK market in 2021 – was recently named on the FT’s list of the fastest-growing UK companies after earning revenues of £178m. This is a 50% improvement on the previous year (although the company is still posting a net loss of £6m).
But how does Popeyes compare to the competition and what’s driving its recent success? While it has been reported that fried chicken is overperforming relative to other areas of the casual dining market, the Louisiana multinational is still performing as well as – or better than – other brands in the space.
YouGov BrandIndex data shows that, its net Impression scores (a measure of general sentiment) among consumers aware of the brand, is 7.1 slightly above the averaged score for fried chicken brands in general (6.8). Popeyes has larger leads for some other metrics such as quality (2.1 vs. -4.3) and satisfaction (30 vs. 25.2).
However, it trails the average scores for brands serving fried chicken when it comes to value (1.9 vs. -0.2) and its ad awareness falls well behind the competition (3.7 vs. 17.7).
Still, Popeyes is performing well, and much of this could potentially be attributed to its success in cultivating a young, metropolitan audience. Nearly half of Popeyes customers live in cities (47% compared to. 23% of the general public), and – perhaps relatedly – a similar proportion are aged 18-34 (49% vs. 25%).
These younger consumers are more likely to spread the word about the chain. BrandIndex data shows an increase in Recommend scores among consumers aged 18-34 over the past 12 months – but only among younger consumers. Scores tracking consumer advocacy changed from 5.0 to 9.1 (+4.1) among this cohort, but among over-35s they barely moved from 0.7 to 0.6 (-0.1).
Popeyes’ expansion plans of late have included more stores outside of the UK’s biggest cities, which may help with targeting an audience outside of younger consumers. And if the growing store count is accompanied by an increase in marketing and advertising activity, the brand may rise even higher in the pecking order.
