New KFC prototype restaurant now hiring for mid-December opening

Unfazed by a surge in competition from multiple other fried-chicken chains, a Bellbrook-based franchise owner of KFC is gearing up to open a new restaurant close to home, and is how hiring to fill as many as 40 new jobs.

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Dunn & Bowling LLC, which operates four Dayton-area KFC restaurants as well as two others in Kenton and Gallion, Ohio, will open its fifth Miami Valley restaurant on Clyo Road just east of Wilmington Pike. The space, south of  I-675, had been vacant.

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Joan Bowling, president of the family-owned-and-operated Dunn & Bowling franchisee, said this week that she expects the new restaurant to open on or about Dec. 15. Those interested in applying for a position at the new restaurant should go to jobs.kfc.com and search for positions for the Bellbrook, Ohio location, Bowling said.

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“We think that’s a great area,” Bowling told this news outlet earlier this year, when she confirmed the new location. “I’m astonished at the growth of businesses and homes. We live in Bellbrook, and we’ve seen that area has just exploded.”

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The new KFC will be a prototype next-generation design that will seat 52 and employ about 35, Bowling said. A KFC restaurant that had operated on Wilmington Pike at Whipp Road until it shut down in early 2016 was owned by a different franchise owner.

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The chicken-restaurant market is becoming intensely competitive in the Dayton area, which has added more than a dozen new restaurants from national chains, regional start-ups and local, independent operators in the last four years. Bowling is confident her franchise KFC restaurants will succeed despite the surge in competition.

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“Our sales have been up substantially for the last year and a half,” Bowling said. “We have great people working for us, including managers that have been with us for 20 years. It’s all about treating customers right and serving a great product.”

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