Chick-fil-A opening corporate office to tours

Admission: Free

Move over, World of Coca-Cola, CNN and Waffle House, Chick-fil-A will announce Thursday that it is opening the doors of its corporate campus to behind-the-scenes tours.

The Atlanta-based chain has been conducting small tours of its South Fulton offices for years — including strolls that give visitors a look at founder Truett Cathy’s vast car collection — but recently decided to offer a formal tour operation every weekday.

“It’s really been an organic process,” Juliet Hall, Chick-fil-A’s manager of sponsorships and event marketing, said of the tours. “When people come to Atlanta, we don’t want them to just think of CNN or Coke, we want them to come to Chick-fil-A, too.”

The tour includes a peek into Cathy’s office, a video on the company’s founding and an up-close, full-size version of one of its famous cow billboards.

The tours actually began a year ago in what the company called a “soft launch,” which allowed leaders to get an idea of best practices and work out kinks. About 7,000 people visited between June and December of 2012. Organizers expect about 18,000 to 20,000 visitors this year.

For many, no visit would be complete without dining at Chick-fil-A. The chain said box lunches will be available for purchase, but visitors will get a sweet treat as part of the tour.

“We do want them to share some element of our food, but I’m not going to tell you everything we have planned because that is part of the surprise,” Hall said.