Kokoriko is the latest fast / casual restaurant concept to arrive in the USA.
Kokoriko is a well-established business in Colombia with over a hundred corporate-owned and franchised locations.
Early in 2009, Kokoriko expanded its operation to the United States. Kokoriko came to TSDG to create their new brand for the USA market.
To quote from Kokoriko's website:
Since 1972 Kokoriko has been delivering our secret recipe chicken throughout Colombia. It all started very humbly with our first restaurant in Colombia under the name Las Colonias as we started the tradition of taking rotisserie chicken home ready to eat. Take me, I am your chicken was our slogan that launched the brand that would forever change what Colombians think of chicken.
Until then Colombians considered chicken a privileged food that was reserved for special occasions and prepared at home almost like a ritual. When it was served at the family table the pieces were assigned by importance, so the father was served the breast and the younger kids settled for the wings.
Kokoriko started changing that tradition and popularized chicken in a few years. With the success of Las Colonias the founders decided to open a family restaurant in Cali under the new name KOKORIKO. Kokoriko comes from a combination of the word rico which translated is delicious, and the French word for the singing of the rooster.
The company continued opening restaurants all over Colombia in key locations in suburban areas, malls and city centers. Today there are 100 hundred company-owned and franchised Kokoriko locations in Colombia that serve more than 14 million people each year. Over the years, Kokoriko has expanded to include additional side items as well as salads, wraps and sandwiches.
With the growth of our restaurants we also expanded with a chicken production plant that produces frozen and breaded products such as chicken nuggets, cordon bleu and chicken fillets. We now product 87% of the frozen chicken products in Colombia, as well as supplying supermarkets and other clients in many surrounding countries.
After years of planning and countless requests, Kokoriko is now beginning an international franchising expansion to share our South American style fast casual dining experience with the rest of the Americas.
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