Champy’s owner Seth Champion opened the original store on M.L. King Boulevard during a recession in 2009, so expanding his operation in 2022 after two years of a pandemic and with rising costs is nothing new for him.
Coming out of the pandemic, he is preparing to open his 10th store in Cleveland next spring and an 11th in Smyrna, Tennessee, in the coming year. Champion’s goal is to have 15 stores eventually and then to “see where it goes from there.”
“We are not backing down, and we are building,” he said by phone on Wednesday morning.
Champion said he continues to grow the business because the demand is there from customers and because he feels an obligation to his staff to provide them opportunities to grow and develop. He said it is in large part because of his staff that Champy’s World Famous Fried Chicken stores continue to do well despite costs having risen 36% since December.
He said items that require hands-on labor such as chicken tenders have seen the most dramatic increase in cost. A case of tenders has gone from $80 to $170, for example, he said, and those increases have been passed on to his customers.