Qdoba Mexican Eats has opened its first new stores in the Chicago area in 15 years, part of the fast-casual chain’s move to add hundreds of U.S. locations annually in the years to come.
San Diego-based Qdoba in recent weeks opened stores in the Chicago suburbs of Wheaton and Vernon Hills, the start of what local franchisee Brent Bernard of Holy Moley Guacamole said will be 15 openings in the area over the next few years — 10 by the end of 2027.
Those new spaces are part of what a Qdoba spokesperson told CoStar News is expected to be 100 annual openings by 2027 on the way to roughly doubling the company’s store count by 2032.
Qdoba now has 840 locations, mostly in the United States. That is the most stores in the history of the chain.
There are 14 in the greater Chicago area, including four in Indiana, the spokesperson said. Franchisees operate 668 of the current restaurants, and they are expected to play an even larger role in the years to come.
Specifics of Qdoba’s expansion plans are emerging a few months after Butterfly, the Los Angeles-based private equity firm that owns Qdoba, announced it had raised $527 million to fuel expansion.
The leader of the fundraising round was an affiliate of Apollo Global, which sold Qdoba to Butterfly in 2022.
In the announcement of that deal, Qdoba CEO John Cywinski said he expects to double system sales over the next five years from the current level of nearly $1.3 billion.
High-priority growth markets will include the eastern United States, California, Florida, Tennessee and Texas, the spokesperson said in an email to CoStar News.
Market shifts
Qdoba’s behemoth rival, Chipotle Mexican Grill, also has been expanding in recent years as it attempts to reclaim pre-pandemic growth rates. U.S. restaurants last year saw a barrage of operational shifts sparked by rising costs and slowing sales. Several chains and regional franchisees took actions, including bankruptcy filings, job reductions and location closings.
But Bernard said there remains plenty of room for profits within a popular niche where there are relatively few major players.
“The Mexican fast-casual space is highly attractive because of limited competition,” Bernard told CoStar News. “Even being on the opposite side of the street from a Chipotle, we can still both be successful. Mexican food with fresh ingredients really resonates with customers.”
Bernard, a longtime Qdoba executive who, backed by an undisclosed investor, decided to own his own Qdoba stores in the Chicago area.
With his family still based for now in Colorado Springs, Colorado, Bernard is building a business in the Chicago suburbs, where he grew up. He is a former Domino’s franchisee in suburban Chicago.
Chicago-area focus
Bernard said his region, covering DuPage and Lake counties, had just one Qdoba before he entered the market.
“It’s a huge market with a bunch of white space,” he said. “Who wouldn’t want that? For my family, looking at the next 20- to 25 years, I’d like nothing better than to invest back into the area where I grew up.”
In late December, Bernard opened a Qdoba at 272 Danada Square in west suburban Wheaton. The next day, he opened one at 700 N. Milwaukee Ave. in north suburban Vernon Hills.
Other leases are signed for restaurants at 295 N. York Road in Elmhurst, 252 S. Gary Ave. in Bloomingdale and 1254 Ogden Ave. in Downers Grove.
Bernard said other deals are in the works, with his portfolio in DuPage and Lake counties likely to include existing spaces within shopping centers and drive-thru restaurants in new construction. Spaces will be 2,000 square feet or so.
“We’re open to buying the right properties, but so far we haven’t found any attractive deals to buy,” Bernard said. “The right real estate has to be there for us to be successful.”
For the record
Savills broker Phil Golding is representing Qdoba in its Chicago-area leases.