Dave’s Hot Chicken, Popeyes and Raising Cane’s take fight to KFC

It was a freezing, rainy December day in London. But the hardy fried chicken lovers queueing around the block on Shaftesbury Avenue didn’t seem to care. Cult US chain Dave’s Hot Chicken was opening its first UK store – and, for some, the bragging rights for being there were well worth the sodden hours shuffling towards a taste of the brand’s famed sliders.

After all, more extreme acts of devotion are commonplace. British TikTok influencers have flown 5,000 miles to LA to try Raising Cane’s viral chicken tenders.

Such lengths might have outsiders scratching their heads, but social media has bestowed a kind of celebrity status upon certain chicken chains, which have gained die-hard followers with trending products.

The growing love of chicken shops has prompted big US players to hit UK high streets in force. Popeyes and Wingstop are taking a bite out of the market, and even pizza giant Domino’s is looking to muscle in with the launch of its Chick n Dip brand.

The granddaddy of fried chicken, KFC, is also looking to cash in. It plans to invest almost £1.5bn in the UK and Ireland over the next five years, opening an additional 500 sites and upgrading 200 more.

So, who are the main players in the chicken shop wars? Why is demand for fried chicken so strong? Is there room for differentiation? And how important is social media in winning the fry-off?

Ten years ago, the UK fried chicken market was dominated by KFC alongside a swathe of independents.

James Whitehorn, chief growth officer at KFC, says the business “created the UK fried chicken market 60 years ago” when it opened its first site in Preston, Lancashire in 1965. KFC now has more than 1,000 restaurants and accounts for more than 65% of the market in the UK and Ireland. “KFC is the reason the UK loves fried chicken,” he says.

KFC may have been top dog for a while, but 20 years after that initial outlet, Morley’s opened the doors to its first store in Sydenham, south-east London in 1985. While it operates on a much smaller scale, with almost 100 sites in and around London, its community values and ties to UK celebs such as Stormzy have ensured its place as a well-loved chain in the capital.

Throughout the mid-2010s, a handful of higher-end fried chicken restaurants – including Coqfighter and Chick’n’Sours – opened in London. But competition really started to heat up in 2018, when Wingstop entered the UK market.

The Texas-founded chain quickly gained a following. Having enjoyed a “record year of expansion” in 2024, it now operates 74 sites across the UK and plans to grow to 200 within the next five years.

Just three years after Wingstop, US rival Popeyes landed in the UK. Since 2021, it has expanded to over 90 outlets. In 2024 alone, it opened 33 new shops and sold the equivalent of one sandwich every three seconds. At the start of this year, Popeyes set out plans to open more than 45 new restaurants in 2025 – a target it is “well on track to meet”, according to UK CEO Tom Crowley.

Newer to the UK scene is Dave’s Hot Chicken. A powerhouse in the US, Dave’s has 329 locations across the pond. Its first UK site, which opened in London in December 2024, has “exceeded expectations” on both foot traffic and customer engagement. Averaging over 1,000 customers a day, the London flagship was described earlier this year as “the best-performing Dave’s Hot Chicken in the world”.

So it’s no surprise Dave’s Hot Chicken UK MD Jim Attwood sees huge potential in the UK. Dave’s has since opened sites in Birmingham and Manchester and plans to open at least 60 UK locations.

One brand yet to officially hit the UK market is Raising Cane’s, which is set to open a flagship in London’s Piccadilly Circus at the end of 2026, followed by several more stores. With a wealth of experience in QSR, it is now the third-largest chicken chain in the US, behind only Chick-fil-A and Popeyes, according to CNBC.

‘The demand is daily, not just at weekends’

For retail and consumer expert Kate Hardcastle, the popularity of these chains comes down to one simple factor: chicken has become “the comfort food of a cost of living era”.

“It’s high in protein, lower on price and available exactly where people are. Add delivery apps, drive-thrus and late-night trading, and you’ve got frictionless access. That’s why you’re seeing US brands pile in and investors back rollouts at pace: the demand is there daily, not just at weekends.”

Younger consumers are the primary driver of demand, says IGD senior analyst Nichola Gallagher. “Gen Z has grown up with high exposure to QSR dining and is now embracing both indulgent and healthier options as their spending power increases. Fried chicken fits squarely into this trend, offering craveable comfort food with strong social media appeal.”

Given the sky-high demand, brands are battling to become consumers’ first choice and, according to Hardcastle, “location is half the strategy”.

While Wingstop and Dave’s Hot Chicken both opted for central London flagships – a costly but highly visible option – Popeyes opened its first UK site at Westfield Stratford City, a shopping centre with high footfall.

“For market entrants, a flagship for buzz, followed by drive-thrus, travel hubs and malls for repeatable volume is the pattern I’d expect,” says Hardcastle. “Airports, stations, retail parks and suburban drive-thrus convert far better than a vanity site on a pricey high street.”

That’s exactly the strategy many chicken chains are adopting. Dave’s is targeting shopping centres and leisure parks, while Popeyes’ Crowley tells The Grocer drive-thrus and travel hubs have been identified as a “major opportunity” in its bid to establish itself as a “truly national brand”.

“We already have stores right across the country from Aberdeen down to Plymouth. We target locations with high footfall, but we don’t have a region or city bias,” says Crowley. “One of the great things we’ve discovered is that customers show similar appetite for our products regardless of where we are in the UK. There are still queues around the block at our openings.”

Meanwhile, Whitehorn says KFC plans “to open sites nationwide, including retail parks, shopping centres, travel hubs and high streets. But the greatest opportunity lies in building new flagships and drive-thrus in key locations like central London, Ireland and northwest England where there’s strong growth potential.”

Even as the main players pursue these aggressive expansion plans – opening multiple restaurants every week – we haven’t reached saturation point yet.

According to IGD, group-owned chicken shop outlets are enjoying year-on-year growth of 6.4%. It forecasts further growth of 8% by 2027.

As that competition heats up, Hardcastle says success will come down to whether a restaurant can solve a problem, such as “quick meals on commuter routes, reliable late-night options and strong delivery radius”.

“Over-clustered high streets will correct. Brands with weak operations or copy-paste menus will feel it first, and the winners will balance pace with discipline – smart leases, tight unit economics and consistent quality,” she says.

The desire for menus that go beyond the norm plays into the hands of independent chicken shops, says IGD’s Gallagher, who points to their strengths of “differentiation and neighbourhood loyalty”. Hardcastle also sees that as an attribute that could help independents battle “pressure on rent and delivery fees”.

Sand(wich)ing out from the crowd

Indeed, differentiation will become ever more important as the market heats up, Hardcastle believes. For her, that is still relatively simple to achieve. “You can win on flavour authority (heat profiles, sauces, proper brining), format (wings vs tenders vs sandwiches), dietary/halal assurance, speed, late-night access – and on delivery that arrives crisp, not soggy.”

That competition is acknowledged by KFC’s Whitehorn. Although KFC’s chicken makes the brand “distinctive”, he admits it must “keep pushing to appeal to the next generation of consumers who are driving the popularity of fried chicken”. It’s doing so through bold marketing, such as a zombie film pastiche and a folk horror-style All Hail Gravy ad earlier this year, to ensure “we’re showing up in culture and conversations where this new generation exists”.

In the case of Dave, spice is a key differentiator, says Attwood. The chain offers seven spice levels, including the ‘reaper’, which hits one million on the Scoville scale and requires purchasers to sign a waiver. While this spice level is only 1% of Dave’s sales mix, it’s created huge buzz on social media.

The Nashville-style hot chicken, which is made-to-order and halal, is generally spicier – and “a different type of fried chicken to the Kentucky benchmark we’re used to”, adds Attwood.

Meanwhile, Popeyes is all about the in-store experience. “We bring the spirit and flavour of New Orleans to the UK,” says Crowley. “We’ve really held on to our roots, and we’ve brought this culture and hospitality to life both through our branding and in our restaurants.”

He raises an important point. While entering and cracking a new market isn’t easy, all of the above brands can draw on their sizeable experience in the US.

Popeyes, for example, operates more than 3,000 restaurants across 46 US states. That well-established presence in the US has “definitely helped us scale so quickly and successfully in the UK,” says Crowley. “Customers are savvy and, in our digital age, brand hype can transcend geography very quickly.”

Meanwhile, Dave’s Hot Chicken went from being a startup in 2017 to securing a £1bn valuation earlier this year, with the backing of celebrity investors including Samuel L Jackson and Drake. In the UK, Dave’s has “tried to duplicate the experience, the product, the feel and the vibe you get in the US”, Attwood says.

Hardcastle believes the US playbook can work in the UK – with a little “translation” for these shores. “Success needs pricing for our reality, portioning that works for solo lunches and family sharing, halal-friendly menus, tea-time and late-evening missions, and delivery-first packaging. Bring the brand theatre the US is known for – and which helped these brands pick up a cool credit on socials – but build for British commuter patterns and smaller kitchens. That’s where US chains either fly or stall.”

While Dave’s has taken a lot of its learnings from the US, it has adapted to the UK market in key areas, Attwood notes. For example, it is “further ahead on sustainability” here with fully recyclable packaging, and has implemented self-service kiosks in UK stores – something the US has “only just started doing”.

Virality = loyalty?

For all of these brands, social media has been crucial to generating buzz on these shores. “The barriers to getting your brand in front of consumers are being completely broken down,” says Attwood.

Dave’s Hot Chicken has amassed six million followers across TikTok and Instagram with its “organic, user-generated content”, which is “where the heart of the brand is really driven”, he says.

Likewise, Raising Cane’s rose to fame on TikTok in 2022, thanks to influencers sharing their reviews and first-time experiences trying the food. Soon, creators from across the globe – including several prominent UK TikTokers – began travelling to the US for the sole purpose of trying the brand’s chicken fingers and Cane’s sauce. It now has four million social media followers across TikTok and Instagram.

However, it’s important to note social media virality doesn’t necessarily equate to long-term customer loyalty. “Queue-worthy launches are great, but loyalty is really built at order three and four, when the app works, the fries travel well and your ‘medium hot’ tastes the same on Tuesday as it did on Saturday,” Hardcastle says. “I love a big social moment – but I trust a brand when the basics are boringly excellent.”

That sentiment is backed up by Gallagher, who says “virality alone isn’t enough” – whether in the US or on this side of the Atlantic. “UK consumers expect quality and consistency, and social media can amplify both praise and criticism rapidly,” she warns.

In the US, Raising Cane’s has backed up its social media fame with the promise of a reassuringly simple menu done well. The chicken chain offers just five core products: chicken fingers; Cane’s sauce; Texas toast; coleslaw; and crinkle-cut fries.

That menu has drawn in customers and kept them coming: in 2024, Raising Cane’s system sales hit $5.1bn (£3.8bn), lifted by a 10.8% increase in traffic. It now has more than 900 US locations, 400 of which have been opened in the past five years alone.

Whether Raising Cane’s can keep that momentum going with the same five-item menu is a point of debate. As online and offline competition grows, KFC’s Whitehorn expects behaviours and tastes to adapt.

“Gen Z are visiting chicken restaurants more than twice as often as the average UK consumer, and they’re increasingly looking for something novel,” he says. “From new spicy flavours to dipping sauces and sides, brands will need to keep their finger on the pulse of taste trends to keep front of mind for these consumers.”

Whitehorn says fried chicken is also “increasingly taking up space in culture”. That’s shown by social media shows such as The Pengest Munch, Chicken Shop Dates and Hot Ones. “Whether it’s music and entertainment or social media trends, fried chicken is becoming the food of choice among culture setters in the UK. Brands that prove they can play in this space will be best placed to succeed.”

KFC’s scale “gives it resilience”, according to Gallagher, who says new entrants may also generate a halo effect that “boosts overall interest in fried chicken and indirectly benefits established players”.

On size alone, KFC will prove hard to beat. But that’s not the only test of success in the chicken shop wars. Ultimately, winning will come down to “repeat visits and cash flow”, says Hardcastle.

“Different players will own different ‘missions’,” she adds. “There’s wings (Wingstop), tenders (Raising Cane’s), the spicy sandwich (Popeyes), heat-led sliders (Dave’s), and KFC remains the family default.”

As Hardcastle sums up: “The brand that wins will post the best unit economics across eat-in, drive-thru and delivery – not just the loudest launch.”