Dan Shapiro & Allison Shapiro Dandry

Chairman of the Board & Director of Philanthropy | Krispy Krunchy Chicken
Profiled: March 2015

⏮ REWIND

The cover feature for our March 2015 issue looked at the people behind Krispy Krunchy Chicken, a quick-service restaurant concept that sold Cajun-style fried chicken from convenience stores. The company was founded by Neal Onebane, who owned eight convenience stores in Lafayette, Louisiana in 1989. He began selling his own chicken and found quick success.

Dan Shapiro joined Onebane as part owner of Krispy Krunchy in 2006, with the goal to take the company nationwide. In 2006, Krispy Krunchy’s annual sales were $12.6 million. By 2014, sales had grown to $155 million, and the company had approximately 1,700 locations.

Allison Shapiro Dandry, Shapiro’s daughter, joined the Krispy Krunchy team in 2011, charged with reinventing the company’s online and social media strategy and branding through Twitter, Facebook, improved Google search rankings and other marketing strategies.

⏭ FAST-FORWARD

The Alexandria, Louisiana-headquartered company has continued to grow doing some reorganizing.

In 2021, a private equity firm purchased Krispy Krunchy Chicken and Dan Shapiro was named CEO. Earlier this year, Shapiro moved to a position as chairman of the board of the company and the COO, Jim Norberg, was promoted to CEO.

The company now boasts approximately 3,000 locations across 46 states, serving up approximately 1.2 million pounds of chicken a week. Krispy Krunchy’s executive team, along with most of its employees, work remotely, with the Alexandria office consisting mostly of its accounting team. The company’s approximately 200 employees are spread around the country, working as trainers, operations specialists and salespeople.

In early 2023, Shapiro Dandry moved out of marketing and became the executive director of the newly formed Krispy Krunchy Chicken Foundation.

“Our company has always been philanthropically minded,” she said. “We saw for ourselves the power of giving after Hurricane Katrina. That decimated our company. It was only because of the kindness of strangers and our vendors that we were able to keep going.”

Shapiro Dandry said the company has made it a point to help deliver a hot meal wherever and whenever it’s needed.

“During the pandemic, we fed about 20,000 people, including healthcare workers, first responders and service industry professionals,” she said. “We have a trailer that’s fully equipped so we can go anywhere.”

Shapiro Dandry said plans for the foundation are still in the works.

“We’re giving ourselves a 12-month runway to figure out what we can do and what we do well,” she said.

Meanwhile, expansion plans continue.

“Outside of Louisiana, our presence is most dense I’d say in California, but Oregon and Washington especially are growing, and New York is starting to grow,” said Dandry, who added, “There are approximately 152,000 convenience stores in the nation and about two-thirds of those are independently owned (not part of a large chain like 7-Eleven or Circle K). They have traditionally been our sweet spot. Being in about 3,000 stores now, that leaves us a lot of room for growth.”