History

In 1994 the first Chicken Cottage store was opened in Wembley, North London and it was here that the Chicken Cottage concept began to take shape. Our immediate goal was the creation of a unique taste, closely followed by the conception of a memorable logo and individual brand identity.

We were determined to produce a product that would not only be successful in the UK but around the world and realised that winning the ‘battle of the globals’ lay with the novel taste of our product.

When it came to the taste, this is where Khalid's passion for cooking and experimentation really came into its own, developing products that were set to become core to the success of Chicken Cottage in our global reach.

These products were fresh, original and designed around tastes that were for the more spicy inclined. We realised that the well-known brands were like lumbering old dinosaurs, unable to react to the fast changing pace of consumer trends and demands that were becoming increasingly more sophisticated and fickle.

Initially our menu was a scaled down version of today’s menu and was not representative of our 'sell all miss none' philosophy of now - we started small and tested thoroughly. Importantly, however, it did represent how British society was changing in general that could only be described in one word - fusion. By combining traditional western fast food products with the rich, intense flavours of the east we were able to create a menu and cuisine unparalleled in the industry by offering fresh ideas loved by diverse communities.

It was this idea of fusing different tastes from a variety of cultures and the use of Halal meat that guaranteed Chicken Cottage was able to present products to the public that didn’t exclude any community, offering those much loved spicy variants for customers as well as the usual products expected from outlets such as ours.

Looking good - Brand concerns

We needed to find a name and a logo that represented our non-exclusionary ethos and would send a strong message to the public about what it means to experience our concept. After much deliberation, Chicken Cottage was chosen as this name embodied not only the main focus of attention i.e. chicken, but also conjured up images of home cooking in cosy environments that was non-intimidating and welcoming.

The logo produced was novel, fresh and ahead of its time based on an abstract view of two chicken heads that continues to be main focus of our brand identity today. The trademark was quickly protected and registered to avoid plagiarism and allowed us to concentrate on promoting our brand and maintaining brand integrity, without fear of dilution with blatant copying.