The story
Pollo Campero developed from the Gutiérrez family's poultry and restaurant businesses in Guatemala. In 1967, the family opened a restaurant selling fried chicken, and on April 28, 1971, the first official Pollo Campero restaurant opened in Guatemala. According to a 2014 case study in Management Decision, the chain expanded to El Salvador in 1972 and to Honduras in 1992.
In the 1990s, Pollo Campero began using franchising to expand outside its original markets. The company created a franchise program in 1997, which supported openings in Panama and later in Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Ecuador, and Mexico. By 2000, the chain had 143 restaurants and nearly 6,000 employees, making it one of the most internationalized Latin American fast-food chains at the time.
The company continued to add new formats and services as it expanded. CMI has described Pollo Campero as introducing self-service in 1980 and home delivery in 1995. In 2007, Pollo Campero opened a restaurant in Shanghai, its first location in China.
From Wikipedia’s article on Pollo Campero, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4