(Yicai Global) April 25 -- Popeyes, a US fried chicken fast food chain, will relaunch in the Chinese mainland in the second half of this year following an overhaul, according to the local arm of Canadian coffee chain Tim Hortons, which acquired the rights to operate the brand.

Tims China is making changes to Popeyes’ market positioning, menus, and restaurant design and will relaunch the brand in the second half of 2023, it told Yicai Global yesterday.

Popeyes’ began to close its mainland outlets last August and this February Tims China announced a merger with Popeyes China, noting that it would secure Popeyes' exclusive franchise  and development rights in the Chinese mainland and Macau once the merger was completed.

“All of Popeyes stores in Shanghai have closed, and new locations will be rented for the reopening,” said the property manager of Xinmei Union Square, the location of one Popeyes’ restaurant in Shanghai.

According to third-party platform Canyandata, only two of Popeyes' nine restaurants in the mainland, which were located in Shanghai, Hangzhou, and Nanjing, remained open. But when Yicai Global visited the sites of the last two in Shanghai yesterday, they were also closed and no longer rented by the firm.

The fast food market in China's first- and second-tier cities is saturated, so it is difficult for new brands to grab a share in such cities, Zhu Danpeng, a Chinese food industry analyst, told Yicai Global. To survive, a possible solution for new brands might be to change their positioning strategies and enter third- and fourth-tier cities, Zhu noted.

Founded in 1972, Popeyes entered China in 2020 when it opened a flagship eatery in Shanghai, with customers having to wait as much as eight hours before getting inside on the opening day.

Editors: Shi Yi, Martin Kadiev