July 20, 2007
Thank you for coming to our website. It has been over two years since we have had a viable website. My goal is to continually add information about our company in terms of our future plans, promotions, store openings, etc.
This process may be a little slow because I feel it is more important for me to stay in the field and stay close to our customer base. Much of my time of late has been spent at our flagship store in San Bernardino.
In 1984, I had the opportunity to open my own chicken restaurant and I jumped at the chance. Although I didn't know much about starting my own business, I promised myself that I would do Juan Pollo for 5 years no matter what happened. Lo and behold, it will be 25 years in 2009!
Starting with the Ontario Calif. location, I spent each day learning the what it took to cook perfect tasting. Once I caught on to the different cooking proceedures, I trained and motivated as many employees as I could to be able to run their own resaurants.
When the big housing recession came in the 1990's, I took advantage of the reduced rents and allowed many hourly employees to open their own restaurants. Expanding rapidly has caused us operational problems. My belief is that unlike school where a 90% score gets you an 'A', giving 1 out of every 10 customers bad service may cause a restaurant to go broke. All customers want everything to be perfect without excuses.
Our future success depends on my ability to maintain a clear focus on what customers really want; great tasting chicken, good customer service, low prices, and, cleanliness.
My challange is to recruit the right type of motivated individuals that see the true potential of our system and are willing to jump in and help us improve.
My goal is to become the largest chicken company in the world. (That means passing KFC.) Right now we are at the bottom of the list so I am assuming that if the right people join me, we can pass KFC in about 50 more years. I am ready for this challenge.
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Albert Okura, future founder of Juan Pollo Restaurants was working for various fast food chains as manager. A char-broiled chicken chain (The other guys) opened a restaurant across the street. Albert was very impressed with the simplicity of the operations. Never really enjoying fried chicken because of the heavy breading and greasy taste, Albert became intrigued with this style chicken. Little did he realize that one day he would produce an improved system of cooking healthy chicken. 
While working as a store supervisor (Del Taco) in Carson, California, Albert met Armando Parra who told him that he had an idea to sell char-broiled chicken back home in Mexico before El Pollo Loco. Albert filed that information as maybe wishful thinking.
Albert's Uncle called and told him he had a restaurant location available in Ontario and felt that it would be an ideal location for a char-broilled chicken restaurant because it was on a main street and was surrounded by a large hispanic population. Even though Albert knew nothing about opening his own business, he jumped at the opportunity. Not knowing where to start, Albert thought about it and remembered his friendship with Armando Parra. Armando came and took one look at the location and told Albert that there was absolutely no room for char-broiled chicken and Albert should sell rotisserie chicken because that is the way they really cook it back home. 
Armando helped Albert get the first Juan Pollo ready to open. (Ontario, California) One week before the scheduled opening, the rotisserie cooker arrived from New York. Armando had one week to perfect a recipe for the rotisserie chicken. Armando's stated goal was to "enhance the natural flavor of the chicken without adding any fats or oils." Armando wanted to create a flavor that would appeal to everyone regardless of their ethnic background.
In January 1986, Albert opened the second Juan Pollo in San Bernardino, California. located at the corner of Fifth St. and Mt. Vernon best known as the Route 66 intersection in San Bernardino where all cars heading to Los Angeles made the turn West. 
