Chicking is set to open the doors of its new Andersons Bay Rd store this morning — possibly the first of two stores.
Chicking New Zealand operations manager Gautham Vyas said the Dunedin store was the chain’s 21st in the country.
Its first South Island store was in Christchurch and Dunedin also seemed like a good location to expand to.
‘‘Dunedin, we thought, would be a very good option for us,’’ Mr Vyas said.
‘‘It’s got a nice student crowd as well here.’’
He was very excited about the opening.
There had been queues outside all 20 of Chicking’s other New Zealand stores upon opening, and Dunedin would be no exception, Mr Vyas said.
Chicking was established in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, in 2000.
It has since expanded to have more than 315 outlets across 35 countries.
Asked about competition from other companies, Mr Vyas said perhaps they had all considered Dunedin a good place to be.
‘‘It’s the cold climate, you know, the kind of [demographic] that Dunedin has.
‘‘It’s always good to have chicken when it’s cold.’’
There were plans to potentially open a second store somewhere along George St later this year.
An exact location was yet to be finalised, but talks were under way.
Mr Vyas said Chicking’s focus was on quality.
Its product range was also quite wide and the flavour was ‘‘something that would be a bit different to New Zealanders’’.
The store is scheduled to open at 11.30am today.
