PDQ marks 15 with a brand refresh after a nearly 25% sales drop

By Olivia Hart

PDQ (People Dedicated to Quality), the Tampa-based chicken chain, marks 15 years in business with nearly 40 locations after sales fell nearly 25% year over year in 2025 and the unit count contracted 31%. The chain counted 62 locations at the end of 2022, and average unit volume has since fallen more than 13%.

In 2025, PDQ sold more than a dozen locations to Yum Brands so KFC could expand its Saucy concept. PDQ did not disclose how many of its nearly 40 remaining sites are company-operated versus franchised. Those figures put traffic and existing-unit productivity ahead of expansion.

Within Technomic’s Top 500, chain restaurant sales slowed in 2025 as consumers pulled back on dining, even as coffee, beverages, snacks and chicken thrived. PDQ’s decline therefore came against a stronger chicken category, while the announcement provides no check average, food-cost or labor data to separate traffic effects from pricing and check size.

Why PDQ is resetting

Chief Operating Officer and People Officer Nina Franchina, who joined PDQ in 2013, said 15 years is a good moment to force a reset as chicken competition intensifies. The company is choosing fundamentals over trying to be everything to everyone: aligning teams, strengthening operations and developing leaders.

She tied training to accountability: “Accountability and support have to go together. When expectations are clear and teams have tools and training to succeed, we are in a better position.” Her stated definition of success is a more consistent guest experience, stronger brand engagement and more reasons to choose PDQ.

What changes in the restaurants

The refresh starts with restaurants in St. Petersburg, Florida, before a gradual rollout across the system. Franchina describes the visual goal as a brighter, bolder expression for today’s consumers, but the work also includes hands-on brand-standards training and a renewed focus on service fundamentals.

Franchina said: “This is about refreshing our visual identity while strengthening the experience behind it, not changing who we are.” PDQ will measure guest feedback on order accuracy, service speed and team retention, with targets of more visits, repeat business and healthier restaurant performance.

Marketing and messaging will also sharpen PDQ’s claimed point of difference in the crowded chicken category. The menu still centers on buttermilk-brined, hand-breaded-to-order chicken, with the tender as the hero. PDQ has not changed the recipe since its 2011 founding, and Franchina said protecting the original recipe and cut of chicken depends on preparation, service, training, support and leadership.

To support repeat visits, PDQ is expanding hospitality training and giving employees more authority to make recommendations, answer questions and welcome guests into the dining room. Drive-throughs use face-to-face ordering without speaker boxes, which Franchina said gives teams a direct chance to bring genuine hospitality to every order.

What does the refresh change for guests and operators?

For guests, the visible change is a brighter identity and a more deliberate service model, not a new recipe. Face-to-face drive-through ordering and broader employee discretion should make interactions more consistent if training and accountability work as intended.

For PDQ’s operators, the practical test is whether clearer expectations and stronger support can lift order accuracy, speed, retention, repeat visits and profitability at existing restaurants. Franchina would not say whether PDQ plans to add locations again. She said growth means more than opening restaurants: the immediate goals are more visits, better existing-unit profitability and more employee development opportunities.

The foundation work will continue in the near term, with PDQ treating team support as the lever guests can feel. Its 15th anniversary is therefore a reset rather than an expansion commitment, and future momentum depends on rebuilding demand and average unit volume.