It was 8 p.m. when the notification came through. A customer had used the digital feedback form printed on the bottom of a Golden Chick receipt to report a missing side of macaroni and cheese. Raj Korpal saw the complaint, picked up his phone, and dialed the number. He verified the customer’s address, bagged the missing side, and drove it directly to the customer’s home. When the man opened his front door, he was surprised to find the franchise owner standing on his porch, holding his order.
That level of personal service is standard practice for Raj and his brother, Karan Korpal. The siblings currently operate four Golden Chick restaurants across Southeast Texas and recently signed a 13-unit development agreement to aggressively expand the regional chicken chain into the Houston and Huntsville markets. It is a massive undertaking for the young operators, but scaling restaurant concepts runs in the family. They grew up helping their parents build a portfolio of Subway franchises, which now stands at 22 stores.
While they still help with the family’s sandwich business, the brothers have also been busy buying, flipping, and selling apartment complexes over the last three years. A few highly successful years in real estate gave them the capital and clarity to pursue franchising on their own. Karan first ate at Golden Chick while attending the University of Texas in Austin. He realized the chain didn’t have a store in his home area of Southeast Texas and immediately began exploring development opportunities.
Raj, on the other hand, took a slightly different path. He had just graduated from college and was preparing for a career in medicine. He had finished his pre-med requirements and was applying to medical schools, but wasn’t passionate about it. Just before the pandemic, Karan proposed they team up. Raj left his medical plans and joined the restaurant business full-time.
“We’re basically two heads from the same animal,” Raj says. “I mainly handle operations, but if one of us is indisposed, we can take each other’s stuff.”
Compared to the saturation of global fast-food chains, the chicken concept offered something different.
“Golden Chick was a fresh start,” Karan says. “There are only 250 locations, but we can see this becoming a nationwide chain with up to 4,000 locations. We just want to be part of something growing.”
That enthusiasm is precisely what Golden Chick’s corporate leadership is looking for as they push the 57-year-old brand into new territories. Howard Terry, chief marketing officer of Golden Chick, joined the company 10 years ago after working for a major competitor. When he first visited a Golden Chick location, he was taken aback by the quality. Terry searched for the company owner, Mark Parley, and expressed his interest in growing the brand.
“Let’s do something with this,” Terry says. “It’s best in quality and taste, but nobody knows about it.”
Terry sees the Korpals as exactly what Golden Chick needs to compete with larger, better-funded rivals.
“They’re young but mature,” Terry says. “They’re ideal franchisees, great operators who push us respectfully by asking questions and understanding the business. I wish I could clone them and have 500 in our system.”
Golden Chick invited Karan to join the six-member franchisee advisory group when he was just 26. During quarterly meetings, corporate department heads present upcoming marketing campaigns and operational changes, among other topics, and ask the council for its thoughts. Karan quickly realized the franchisor was strongly invested in unit-level economics.
“I realized how franchisee-oriented they were,” Karan says. “They were really pro-franchisee profitability… being part of that discussion and realizing that they also care about us meant a lot.”
The brothers are applying that corporate support to a carefully mapped real estate strategy. Their new 13-unit deal operates with two different approaches. In Houston, an explosive market with heavy competition and high demand, they negotiated an aggressive four-year timeline to open 10 stores. In Southeast Texas, covering Jefferson and Orange counties, they have agreed to open three stores within the same time window. This agreement allows them to dictate the pace in a slower-growing region where they are currently the sole Golden Chick operator. When scouting sites, Karan focuses on areas where quick-service restaurants have already proven to perform well. Specifically looking to open near high-traffic anchors like H-E-B grocery stores, Chick-fil-A, and McDonald’s.
Transitioning from sandwich shops with simple ovens and toasters to a chicken concept requiring fryers and combi-steamers presented a steep learning curve. The revenue jump was just as pronounced. While a typical Subway might earn $10,000 weekly, Golden Chick locations often triple that, bringing much higher overhead and staffing needs.
To handle the volume, the Korpals rely on their director of operations, Coach Sam, who has been with them from the start. Sam travels to each new opening, treating restaurant management like a sport. Before opening day, he gathers the team, who often pick a punny team name like Hustling Hens, and delivers a spirited, locker-room-style pep talk.
The coaching strategy motivates the team, and a blend of digital and grassroots marketing excites the community. When the brothers opened Port Arthur, Texas, enthusiasm on local Facebook groups led to heavy traffic. Cars wrapped around the parking lot, stretching a block onto the highway. By week’s end, sales topped $120,000, setting a brand revenue record.
High volume only sustains itself if the execution is flawless, an issue Terry has tackled himself from the corporate office. Terry recently launched what he calls Mission 4.0, an internal initiative that demands that every store achieve a Google rating of 4.0 or higher. Because the chicken category is inherently complex with multiple sides and high rates of missing items, Terry introduced clear-top packaging so employees and guests could visually confirm order accuracy before the bag leaves the counter. He paired this with a back-of-house marketing campaign that rewards high-performing crews with custom-embroidered, personalized Golden Chick hats. Within a year, the system’s average Google rating climbed from 3.6 to 3.92, with 47 stores surpassing 4.2.
The Korpals match that drive for operational excellence by testing new channels. Golden Chick gave them one of the brand’s only mobile kitchens. Instead of focusing strictly on profit, Karan plans to use the food truck as a billboard, parking it at state fairs and community events, serving a streamlined menu to generate trial and direct traffic to nearby stores.
They are also experimenting with operating hours. At a new Houston store located off I-45 near a college campus, the brothers are implementing a 2 a.m. closing time on Fridays and Saturdays. Karan plans to run the late-evening test for a full six to eight months, giving the local customer base plenty of time to realize the store is open past midnight. It is a calculated risk aimed at reaching a specific demographic that competitors might not be considering.
No matter how large their portfolio grows or how late drive-thrus stay open, Raj and Karan insist on preserving the family-run culture their parents taught them. They still seek advice from their parents when scaling challenges arise. Born and raised in Silsbee, Texas, with headquarters in Beaumont,Texas, they value the importance of local brands in Texas. Growing up eating at Jason’s Deli, another Beaumont original, they aim to build that same generational loyalty.
“Focusing on the growth of Golden Chick is something we’re really passionate about,” Karan says.
The post Meet the Brothers Fueling Golden Chick’s Next Wave of Growth in Texas appeared first on QSR Magazine.