Pollo Campero Eyes Texas

The Guatemalan chicken chain, already operating in a dozen countries, is seeing strong sales in Texas and will expand its footprint from two to five stores in Houston, which has the third largest Latino population in the U.S. More than a third of the city’s metro-area population is Latino, and 13% of those are Central American. Pollo Campero serves fried chicken, a street-food staple in the Guatemalan countryside, and its bilingual menus include empanadas, yucca fries, horchata, fried plantains, pico de gallo and a salsa bar.

The chain debuted in Guatemala in 1971 and opened its first U.S. location in Los Angeles in 2002. Currently, it has more than 350 stores in 12 countries; in addition to units in Central and South America and 55 in the U.S., there are Pollo Campero stores in Spain, Italy, India, Indonesia and Bahrain.