About nine months ago, Moe Bonakdar’s Seal Beach-based company Charo Chicken Systems Inc. announced that it would begin franchising its fast-food chicken concept, but he wasn’t expecting the chain to garner so much interest so soon.
“I had planned for 50 units in five years, but I think in the next couple of months we will have 50 locked up. The concept is selling itself,” said Bonakdar, an Iranian immigrant who started out in the pizza business in the 1980s. His chicken business was hatched about 15 years ago and his first franchisee opened a store in Los Alamitos in May. The company has about 150 employees system-wide; its average store sales are $900,000 to $1 million and about 40% of sales are delivery, Bonakdar said.
Bonakdar credits John Gorman of Orange-based J & G; Associates for helping to speed up the franchising.
Among the franchisees Bonakdar has signed up is KFH Food Management Corp. in Torrance, which has agreed to develop about 20 stores in the San Francisco area and eight units in west Los Angeles County.
“My challenge right now is to build the infrastructure to support the franchisees, and I will be hiring and training new people,” Bonakdar said.
Among the positions open are vice president of marketing, vice president of franchising, area managers and MIS management information systems.
