K-Mac, BRM Take Over KFC Franchising Turf

The territory that includes eight closed KFC restaurants in Northwest Arkansas is being taken over by two Arkansas KFC franchisees, K-Mac Enterprises Inc. of Fort Smith and BRM Foods Inc. of Searcy.

Some of those restaurants will be reopened and others will be renovated or relocated, said Bob Mosesso, who is a partner with Billy Ball at BRM Foods.

BRM acquired the turf in Springdale and eastern Fayetteville and plans to reopen the three KFCs in those cities within the next seven months, although the two Springdale stores may be relocated.

The eight restaurants were closed in December when Newmark Foods Inc., a KFC franchisee in New Mexico, filed for bankruptcy. KFC stands for Kentucky Fried Chicken, although the Louisville, Ky.-based company goes by KFC now.

K-Mac has taken over the KFC franchising territory in Rogers, Bentonville, Siloam Springs and western Fayetteville. Five KFC stores were located in that area.

BRM reopened the KFC at 2992 North College Ave. on Feb. 11. BRM is leasing that building from Mathias Properties of Springdale.

Mosesso said he is “aggressively seeking a location in Springdale,” probably on South Thompson St. And a second Springdale store will be opened later.

Mosesso said he was negotiating to buy two former KFC locations owned by Amresco Inc., a finance company in Idaho, but he didn’t know if those sales would go through. Those two Springdale buildings are at 600 South Thompson St. and 2638 W. Sunset Avenue. The buildings would require extensive renovation totaling about $750,000 for both, he said.

The Sunset Avenue store was closed a year ago when Newmark Foods opened a KFC at 1120 Mathias Drive in Springdale, near the intersection of Interstate 540 and U.S. Highway 412.

Mosesso said BRM chose not to reopen at the Mathias Drive location, in part because that location is a “power pumper” store, meaning it has gasoline pumps in addition to an eatery.

Mosesso said BRM is looking to open a second store in Fayetteville, probably in the vicinity of Crossover Road and Mission Boulevard, but that could be several years from now.

Mosesso said BRM’s Fayetteville store can seat 106 diners.

We were unable to reach anyone at K-Mac for comment. K-Mac took over territory that included two KFCs in Rogers and one each in Bentonville, Siloam Springs and Fayetteville (at 2117 W. Sixth St.).

Newmark Foods, which was operated by Robert Mott, also had 11 KFCs in Texas and six in New Mexico.

Franchise rights cost $25,000, and it costs $900,000-$1.2 million to build a KFC restaurant from the ground up.

KFC is owned by Tricon Global Restaurants Inc.