Chicken Chain Expanding With 4 Bucks Co. Locations (ICYMI)

BUCKS COUNTY, PA — The aggressive expansion plans for an up-and-coming fast chicken chain in the Philadelphia area will reportedly include four locations in Lower Bucks County in the next few months.

HNT Chicken, which is based in Brazil, recently opened its first U.S. location at Franklin Mills in Philadelphia. Franchise developer Jignesh "Jay" Pandya told The Intelligencer that he plans to open 60-65 locations along the east coast in the coming year — including four HNT Chicken locations in Bucks County.

The chicken spots are slated to go into vacant Pizza Hut locations in Falls, Bensalem, Middletown and Lower Southampton, he told the paper.

Closed Pizza Hut locations are on Oxford Valley Road in Falls, Street Road in Bensalem, E. Street Road in Lower Southampton and the Summit Square Shopping Center in Middletown.

According to the Philadelphia Business Journal, the quick-service chicken chain plans to open 40-50 locations throughout the Philly area in the coming year, creating about 1,000 jobs. Ronak Pandya, the 19-year-old son of Jignesh Pandya, will be the venture's CEO, the Business Journal reported.

Attempts to reach representatives of the group Tuesday by Patch were not immediately successful.
HNT, which is short for "hot 'n' tender," was founded in Brazil by Dany Levkovits. Its first store opened in Rio de Janeiro in 1995 and it was incorporated in 2014. It has dozens of locations across Brazil, but the Franklin Mills location is its first in the United States.

The HNT locations would join a list of other restaurants scheduled to open in Bucks County in 2020.

New restaurants opening locally include wine bars, pizzerias, taco eateries, and more. The establishments are both chains and independently owned.

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