Overseas Growth: Dave’s Hot Chicken, Walmart

Two U.S. companies have unveiled plans for major growth pushes outside their home country. They are:

Dave’s Hot Chicken (Pasadena, Calif.), which has inked a pact with UK-based Azzurri Group to develop 180 restaurants in 10 European countries: the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain and Turkey. In addition to Dave’s Hot Chicken, which specializes in Nashville-style home chicken, Azzurri operates 220-plus ASK Italian, Boojum, Coco di Mama and Zizzi restaurants and stores.

Walmart (Bentonville, Ark.), whose Mexico and Central America unit is planning to spend $260 million on new stores, remodels, technology upgrades, logistics systems and sustainability initiatives in El Salvador. The retailer already operates just over 100 stores in the Central American country. To kick off the effort, Walmart officials held a groundbreaking for a new SuperCenter in Tecla, west of San Salvador. (The retailer did not specify how many new stores it plans for the country.)