Viva Chicken is a Food On Demand Outstanding Operator.
Viva Chicken, the fast-casual Peruvian rotisserie chain with 15 locations in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Utah, is not shy about its devotion to poultry. After all, its name literally means “long live chicken.” This is one bird-crazy brand.
Amanda Quinn, director of catering
“We do sell a lot of chickens,” said Amanda Quinn, director of catering, with a chuckle.
It sure has. Since it opened its first location in Charlotte in 2013, it has sold more than 4 million chickens. The brand specializes in preparing authentic charcoal-fired polla a la brasa similar to what is found in the streets of Peru, which is the homeland of co-founder Bruno Macchiavello and of the wife of co-founder Ryan Garcia. It prepares three Peruvian sauces daily at each restaurant — aji amarillo (mild, yellow), huacatay (medium, green), and rocoto (hot, red) — and various sides indigenous to the South American country, which the brand has made popular in the south of America.
An exclusive delivery partnership
Many of those millions of chickens have flown the coop in off-premises transactions, which account for 71 percent of the brand’s business. Delivery in particular is strong. It proved a life-saver during the pandemic.
“Covid caused a beating in our dine-in sales but we adapted,” said Sharyn Knight, director of marketing, in an interview. “Last year we revamped our tech stack, and this year is all about finding ways to leverage it.”
For delivery it partners exclusively with Uber. The brand has made peace with the fact that it needs the scope of one of the third-party delivery platforms to reach its goals.
Sharyn Knight, director of marketing
“We’ve found that having an exclusive deal with Uber, instead of spreading ourselves across multiple platforms, results in better service,” Knight said.
The brand is also working with tech provider Olo on a white-glove service. Knight loves it when consumers choose this route. “They can get their rewards and enjoy more of a personal experience,” she said.
Hospitality above all else
“Randy [Garcia], one of our founders, says we are a craft casual restaurant with a full-service mentality,” Quinn said. “That extends to how we treat our consumers outside our restaurant.”
Hospitality is a key word in Viva World. “We strive for a hospitality mentality not only at the restaurant level but throughout our loyalty program,” Knight. “Our goal is to showcase that.”
Case in point is its “Random Acts of Kindness” initiative, in which team members are encouraged to anticipate guest needs, such as adding churros to an order with kids’ meals.
Catering is a competitive advantage
Catering is a crucial component to the brand’s sales mix, comprising 10 percent of overall sales. In some locations the percentage of catering sales is more like 20 percent. And Knight notes that the brand has clawed its catering sales back to pre-pandemic numbers.
“Catering gives us a huge leg up against our competitors as consumers respond to our make-everything-from-scratch approach,” she said. “Amanda’s done a great job growing that side of our business.”
A new app and enhanced loyalty
The brand refreshed its app last year, allowing it do more with loyalty and data.
“We now have the ability to understand the habits of our customers and meet them where they are and offer a personalized experience,” Knight said. “We dive into every check that comes through, whether it’s for delivery or dine-in or take-out or curbside. We monitor the sales on a daily basis versus a weekly basis. Having that level of real-time data is invaluable.”
The loyalty program, Viva Chicken Insiders, allows members to earn points redeemable for free food, exclusive experiences and merchandise. It uses geolocation to display local events and offers in-app deals and rewards. New members receive a $5 reward for signing up, and current members may keep existing points. It has more than 135,000 VIVA Points loyalty members.
Stepping on the gas for growth
Chicken has been red hot in the QSR space for a while now, and shows no signs of slowing. In 2024, the chicken QSR category outperformed the wider fast-casual and QSR segments, and experienced a 4.3 percent year-over-year traffic boost in the third quarter, according to data from Placer.ai. Viva Chicken intends to capitalize on this trend. It’s not likely to go all the way back to its roots and open a location in Lima but it may enter some new stateside markets.
“More locations are definitely in the playbook,” Knight said. “Our goal for this year is getting everything lined up for growth.”
