A family-owned franchise group is accelerating Chicken Salad Chick's western expansion with a second Utah location set to open November 17 in Spanish Fork, less than six months after debuting the brand in Pleasant Grove.
The Spanish Fork restaurant, located at 588 E Commerce Way, is owned by the Mills family — father-son-nephew trio Michael, Rylan, and Jordan Mills, operating under MJR Holdings LLC. Their wives also take active roles in day-to-day operations. The group's background spans accounting and small business management, and they have committed to developing four additional Chicken Salad Chick units across Utah County, which would bring their local footprint to six locations.
The Franchise Play
The Mills family's rapid buildout illustrates a broader pattern in fast casual franchising: operators with financial and operational expertise using multi-unit development agreements to establish regional dominance early in a brand's market entry. For Chicken Salad Chick, which has grown to more than 350 restaurants across 27 states, Utah represents part of a deliberate western push. CEO and President Scott Deviney credited the franchise partners directly, noting that Michael and Rylan Mills "will continue to play an important role in our broader western expansion."
The Spanish Fork unit features a drive-thru — an amenity that has become table stakes for fast casual operators competing for convenience-minded guests — along with in-restaurant dining, takeout, third-party delivery, and catering. Hours run Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Grand Opening Details
To drive traffic during launch week, the location is running a tiered giveaway from November 17–21. The first guest in line on opening day receives a free large Quick Chick of chicken salad weekly for an entire year; the next 99 guests earn one per month for a year. Subsequent days feature branded merchandise including tumblers, picnic blankets, beanies, and drawstring backpacks for the first 25 to 50 guests. Guests must download the Chicken Salad Chick app to secure their grand-opening reward — a tactic that simultaneously builds the brand's loyalty database at launch.
Beyond the promotional push, the Spanish Fork team is embedding itself in the local community ahead of opening. Pre-launch Friends & Family events are raising funds for Project Sleep Tight, a nonprofit that provides emotional security items to homeless, foster, refugee, and displaced children. Chicken Salad Chick's corporate CSC Foundation also supports CURE Childhood Cancer and local food banks through year-round fundraisers.
What It Means for Operators
The Spanish Fork opening is a useful case study in regional franchise scaling — a single franchisee group opening back-to-back locations in the same metro area to build brand awareness and operational efficiency simultaneously. For operators tracking fast casual expansion trends or considering their own multi-unit development strategies, the Mills family model — leveraging financial acumen, family labor, and a defined development pipeline — reflects what leading franchise brands increasingly look for in growth markets.
Chicken Salad Chick's positioning as the only national fast casual concept built entirely around chicken salad gives it a narrow but defensible niche. With made-from-scratch flavors, rotating soups, and catering capabilities, the brand competes less on price and more on product differentiation — a strategy that has driven consistent recognition from industry trackers including Technomic and QSR magazine. For more on franchise-driven restaurant growth and emerging fast casual concepts, RHFNews continues to track the sector closely.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
