Mixed company-operated and franchised; franchise development pushing east from California.
Consumer Demand has not been republished since Q4 2025. It keeps its published value here — CSW does not roll a figure forward — and the rankings page lists every overdue input.
El Pollo Loco is the category's counter-programming: flame-grilled, Mexican-inspired, and largely insulated from the fried-chicken arms race. It is also the smallest growth story here — nine openings in a year against a 500-unit base, and flat full-year comps of +0.1%. The Q4 acceleration to +2.1% and a 17.8% restaurant contribution margin say the operating model is healthy; the constraint is geographic concentration in nine states and a build-cost profile that makes franchise development slower than a fryer-only competitor's.
Cap rate
Public-company corporate credit on company-operated sites; franchisee sites price at franchisee QSR levels3
El Pollo Loco's fire-grill platform requires a heavier kitchen build than fryer-only concepts, which raises both build cost and the switching cost of a second-generation conversion.
| Date | Type | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Opening | Colorado Springs, CO — 500th El Pollo Loco restaurant; nine openings in 2025.2 |
Swipe the table to see more columns →
What it means for the Chicken Wars: Flat full-year comps (+0.1%) with a Q4 acceleration to +2.1% and a 17.8% restaurant contribution margin. Healthy unit economics, minimal unit growth — nine openings against a 500-restaurant base. LOCO is a margin story, not a development story.
Every figure on this page is attributed. CSW does not publish estimates as facts — where a number is unavailable it is shown as “—”, and where a figure is derived arithmetically from two published figures it is marked as derived.