Love's Opens First Two Restaurants Under Bojangles Pact

OKLAHOMA CITY — Love's Travel Stops & Country Stores opened its first two Bojangles restaurants inside locations in Marion, Ill., and Blytheville, Ark.

The restaurants are the first of a planned 40 to open as part of a national franchise development agreement formed in late 2019, as Convenience Store News previously reported.

"Bojangles provides us with a unique food option that has a lot of our customers chomping at the bit to try," said Joe Cotton, Love's vice president of restaurant services. "If you've ever tasted the made-from-scratch biscuit breakfast sandwiches or their delicious hand-breaded bone-in chicken, you'll know why."

The Bojangles menu features food made from Southern recipes, including all-day breakfast. It operates approximately 750 restaurants in 11 states.

Under the terms of the development agreement, other Bojangles restaurants will open inside Love's locations in Illinois, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Mississippi, marking the brand's entrance into those states. They will be managed by a dedicated Bojangles-trained Love's team, the company said.

"We're excited to bring our Southern food, hospitality and sass to two new states as the first locations from our national franchisee agreement with Love's open," said Jose Costa, chief development officer of Bojangles. "Both Love's and Bojangles are road trip staples so this partnership makes great sense for our customers and our business. We look forward to many successes together."

Oklahoma City-based Love's operates more than 530 locations in 41 states.