Sixteen Indy-area Popeyes acquired by franchise group

A Terre Haute-based restaurant franchisee has acquired 16 Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen restaurants in the Indianapolis area.

Womack Restaurants, which began its association with the Atlanta-based fried chicken chain in 2014, announced Thursday that it completed the acquisitions on Monday.

Terms of the deal were not released. According to Popeyes, start-up costs for a new Popeyes franchise range from $235,300 to $454,100, excluding real estate and construction costs.

“From the start of our relationship with Popeyes, it has been our goal to own and operate the Indy Popeyes market,” Scott Womack, president of Womack Restaurants, said in a written statement. “We have deep roots in the area and I am confident that this will be a great market for our Popeyes restaurants.”

Popeyes has nine restaurants in Indianapolis and others scattered in Avon, Carmel, Fishers, Greenfield, Greenwood, Lebanon, Plainfield, Anderson and Whitestown.  

In addition, Womack Restaurants operates 16 Popeyes locations in Missouri, Kansas and Oklahoma. Company president Scott Womack started in the restaurant business as an IHOP franchisee in 1990 and sold his holdings in 2015.

Indianapolis has been a target market for Popeyes, since franchisee Will Pace closed five locations in 2010.

Popeyes is the third-biggest quick-service chicken chain in the United States, behind Chick-fil-A and KFC, and boasts more than 2,500 franchised locations in the United States and more than two dozen foreign countries.