Popeyes vs. Mary Brown’s: A cross-border chicken rivalry is brewing in Atlantic Canada

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Shirley Williamson and Dianne Bottomley never bought into the Popeyes craze, not even when the American Louisiana-style chicken chain made its foray into Atlantic Canada two-and-a-half years ago.

It landed right in their backyard in Bedford, N.S., an affluent suburb of Halifax, and the city was clearly waiting for it. On opening day, an endless stream of vehicles snaked through the parking lot, snarling traffic in a nearby roundabout and stretching back nearly a kilometre to the main highway that encircles the capital.

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Though intrigued by the madness, Williamson and Bottomley weren’t persuaded to join in. They were perfectly content with what they already had: Mary Brown’s Chicken.

Give the homegrown chain the edge here, but there is a growing rivalry brewing in Atlantic Canada between the once hometown favourite Mary Brown’s Inc. and Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen Inc., the come-from-away multinational based in Miami.

Since its East Coast debut, Popeyes has added six more restaurants in the region. Earlier this year, its parent company, Restaurant Brands International Inc., announced plans for 800 new locations by 2028, bringing the chain up to 4,200 locations in the United States and Canada.

Mary Brown’s, founded 55 years ago in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, has plans to open four restaurants in Atlantic Canada by year-end and another 20 in 2025. Overall, it has around 300 restaurants across Canada and none in the U.S.

The rivalry is no secret. Mary Brown’s openly admits it.

“Mary Brown’s is going head to head with Popeyes,” its website says. The site is devoted to explaining the differences between the two franchises, both in terms of the chicken offerings and the advantages of buying into the homegrown franchise.

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But convincing Eder Rivas to get off the Popeye train could be a hard sell. The Mexico City native has been living in Halifax for a decade and hadn’t even heard of Mary Brown’s. There was a Popeyes back home and the 41-year-old was happy to be reunited with the brand.

“I remember seeing the sign and thinking, ‘OK, you have Popeyes now, that’s great,’” he said.

The crunchiness of the batter is what gets him. That, and the honey mustard dip.

“It’s really addictive,” he said.

But Jeff Barlow, chief marketing officer of Mary Brown’s Chicken, said he’s happy to take on the competition.

“We welcome it, and let the guests decide what they like or don’t like,” he said. “We’re a different kind of product, I believe. We kind of follow our own strategy, our own way of doing things in how we prepare our food. I think the guests can taste the difference.”

Barlow said Popeyes’ presence hasn’t hurt Mary Brown’s bottom line. Indeed, the past four years have been the best in the company’s history, he said. While he wouldn’t share figures for the privately owned company, he said sales growth has been at least single-digit, and sometimes double-digit.

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Most of that growth has come in Atlantic Canada, but there are plans to expand outside North America. Franchises are earmarked for Ireland, Mexico, India and Pakistan in 2025.

Without naming names, Barlow said Mary Brown’s does things better than the competition. To start, its chicken is cut in-store, butcher-style. It’s been that way from day 1, he said. He added it also offers bigger pieces of chicken than the other guys and its taters are fresh from the farmer’s field.

“We cut them by hand and in store for maximum freshness,” he said. “A lot of others will take in frozen product: freezer to frier, as the saying goes.”

Competition’s been good for Mary Brown’s, Barlow said. He points back to the chicken sandwich wars, a North American craze spearheaded by Popeye’s in 2019. Mary Brown’s used it as an opportunity to showcase its iconic Big Mary sandwich and launch new products, such as the K-Crunch Asian-inspired sandwich.

“We paid attention to it and we marketed to the hype at the time,” he said. “Similar competitors just boost the category of chicken, meaning if there was a hamburger war, the hamburger product would be elevated and would increase sales.”

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Popeyes isn’t saying much publicly about its plans for Atlantic Canada, but one worker said another restaurant was slated to open in Dartmouth, N.S., in December, and then another soon after in Sydney, Cape Breton.

One thing is certain: the chicken wars will continue. Rob Manuel, general manager of Popeyes Canada, said in an email that the company did not have any “development news” to share, but that it is always looking at further expansion opportunities across the country. Popeyes’ sales in North America topped $5.8 billion last year.

Erica Rideout is one consumer hoping to see more Popeyes in Nova Scotia. She especially likes its tenders, usually mild, sometimes spicy. Their spicy blackened ranch is phenomenal, she said. Popeyes is the cooler, happening place, she said.

“Mary Brown’s has been around for a long time, and I don’t think Mary Brown’s has done anything new in a really long time,” she said. “I never think, ‘Oh, let’s go to Mary Brown’s.’ But I don’t see it going away any time soon, either.”

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That will keep Shirley Williamson and Dianne Bottomley happy. The pair of old friends continue have a twice-monthly get-together: a bit of shopping, punctuated by lunch at Mary Brown’s. From time to time, they’ll venture into Popeyes for a bite, but they’ve not been swayed.

Like last week, when they showed up at Popeyes. Williamson ordered two chicken breasts; Bottomley bought chicken tenders.

“Mary Brown’s is just better,” Williamson said. “The chicken pieces are much better, not as greasy. The chicken breasts are bigger.”

Her sidekick agreed.

“Mary Brown’s has the best taters,” she said. “I don’t know why; they’re just tastier, more tender.”

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