American Roundup: Seven Chains With Offshore Openings

Arby’s is planning 25 locations in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia over the next seven years, marking its first international expansion since 2010. The new restaurants will sell chicken items and substitute pork bacon with beef bacon. The sandwich chain’s first Kuwait unit will open this year. About 96% of Arby’s 3,322 restaurants are in the United States.

Boston Market is taking its version of home-style cooking into the Middle East. A development agreement with Al-Ghunaim Trading Co. will see up to 30 Boston Market restaurants in Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Qatar, and Jordan; the first unit should debut in Kuwait by early 2017. The 457-unit Colorado chain is busy at home too, with plans for 12 new locations in the U.S. this year.

Carl’s Jr. is launching Cambodia’s first-ever drive-thru restaurant. The California burger chain will open the unit in September in Phnom Penh. Cambodians already are accustomed to ordering food from street stalls while in their cars or on their motorcycles.

Dunkin’ Donuts, which re-launched in the UK in 2014 after pulling out of the country in the 1990s, will add 78 new stores during the next five years to the 22 currently operating there. Founded in Massachusetts in 1950, Dunkin’ Donuts has more than 11,000 stores in 33 countries; parent Dunkin’ Brands also operates the Baskin-Robbins ice cream chain.

Shake Shack is opening its first store in South Korea this summer. Construction on the restaurant in Gangnam Avenue, one of Seoul’s largest communities, is shielded by an illuminated art installation. Shake Shack has 52 locations in the United States and 36 internationally licensed outlets.

Smashburger has made plans to open 35 UK restaurants in the next few years, including six within the next year. The chain launched its debut store in Milton Keynes in May, and is readying sites in Brighton, Bath and Newcastle, as well as in Glasgow. Smashburger is based in Colorado and has more than 365 restaurants in eight countries.

Texas Chicken, the global arm of Church’s Chicken, is spreading its wings in Southeast Asia. It currently operates 13 restaurants in Thailand and Vietnam, and a new multiyear seven-unit deal with RMA Group will make it the largest quick-service fried chicken chain in Laos, a country of more than 6 million people. The first restaurant should open in Vientiane later this year. Church’s Chicken and Texas Chicken have more than 1,650 locations in 25 countries.