Saudi Entrepreneur Plans Three Fast-Food Chicken Outlets

ORLANDO-Saudi Arabian poultry producer Tarek Fakieh is invading metro Orlando with his 10-year-old Taza fast-foot chicken chain. Fakieh has opened a 7,000-sf, 180-seat restaurant that will serve as his company’s corporate headquarters and training kitchen on Sand Lake Road at the Florida Mall in south Orlando.

He plans to open two other units at an estimated 5,000 sf later this year or first quarter 2003 on Semoran Boulevard near Orlando International Airport and at another undetermined Central Florida location. The total hard cost investment for the estimated total 17,000 sf at the three restaurants is expected to be around $1 million, construction industry estimators familiar with comparable projects tell GlobeSt.com on condition of anonymity.

Fakieh has hired Armando Nunez as general manager of his United States operations which will be based in Orlando. Nunez successfully tested the Chicago market for four years before setting up the first Orlando outlet. He is a former Central European human resources executive at McDonald’s Corp.