Campbell gives Bojangles something to crow about.

• Position: Dick Campbell of BJ Acquisition Corp. - People

Dick Campbell is no San Diego chicken, but he's got Bojangles' Famous Chicken 'N Biscuits strutting again.

With BJ Acquisitions Corp.'s purchase this summer of 27 South Carolina franchises from Carabo Inc. of Greenville, S.C., the chain can crow about 250 Bo's in the Carolinas, Virginia, Tennessee and Georgia -- 170 owned and 80 or so franchised. That's 100 more than when Campbell took over the chain in August 1990. By buying back franchises and overhauling operations, Charlotte-based Bojangles expects to more than double last year's operating profit of $3.9 million, to $8.7 million.

The 43-year-old Hazard, Ky., native got his start in the business from another Kentuckian -- Colonel Harland Sanders of KFC, where Campbell worked for 17 years. Pepsico-owned KFC has about half the $6.5 billion fried-chicken market. Wanting to run his own show, he joined forces with two venture capitalists to acquire the chain for $19 million from Horn & Hardart Co. In 1982, the New York-based conglomerate had bought out Jack Fulk, the Charlottean who founded Bojangles in 1977, but it tried to grow the chain too rapidly.

Campbell, with business and pre-law degrees from the University...