El Pollo Loco
El Pollo Loco is the name of three independent restaurant chains that specialize in Mexican-style grilled chicken. The Mexican and American companies were founded by Juan Francisco Ochoa while the Filipino company began as a franchisee of the American company in 1991 that later broke free of its contract and was allowed to retain its trademarks within the Philippines in 2016.
Ochoa established the first El Pollo Loco restaurant in Guasave, Sinaloa, Mexico in 1974. He then expanded his chain into the United States in 1980. He later sold his U.S. restaurants in 1983 while keeping the ones in Mexico. The two North American companies have since occupied non-overlapping global territories and have offered different fare.
- El Pollo Loco (Mexico) is the chain still owned by Ochoa's family and operates over 50 locations within Mexico.
- El Pollo Loco (United States) operates about 500 company-owned and franchised restaurants primarily in the Southwestern United States. Since 2014, the U.S.-based company has been publicly traded on the NASDAQ stock exchange under the ticker LOCO.
- El Pollo Loco (Philippines) is a subsidiary of Manila-based The Bistro Group that operated 10 company-owned restaurants within the Manila metropolitan area.