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The fertile Orange County fast-food community has hatched a third chicken chain.
But in a land dominated by locally based El Pollo Loco and Koo Koo Roo and out-oftowners like KFC and Boston Market, Moe Bonakdar's Seal Beach-based Charo Chicken Systems Inc. is the little chick on the block.
"There is plenty of competition in the market, and that will be the big factor for Charo Chicken as to how successful they are," said Tony Cherbak, partner and retail analyst in the Costa Mesa office of Deloitte & Touche. "Boston Market started out as one of the hottest things around and even they got into financial trouble."
Still, that hasn't stopped Bonakdar from taking his five-unit operation through its first steps. The IS-year-old company, which has about 140 employees, recently spawned its first franchisee-a 2,000-square-foot restaurant in Los Alamitos. The unit, which opened a month ago, is the company's largest and busiest. And Bonakdar is gearing up to launch another four franchises this year, in Lake Forest, Mission Viejo, Irvine and Torrance. Five years out, the shopping center-based chicken chain expects to grow to...