Wingstop began as a small buffalo-style chicken wing restaurant in Garland, Texas, and today it has more than 2,000 restaurants open across the globe with plans to significantly expand its footprint in Canada.
“Wingstop has been around for well over 30 years in the U.S., and currently sitting just over 2,200 locations globally with plans to 10x their international growth over the next few years,” said Matt Jenkyns, Chief Operating Officer, Wingstop Canada at JPK Capital.
In 2021, JPK Capital acquired the master franchise rights for Wingstop in Canada.
“In Canada, we’re obviously a big part of that International growth strategy for Wingstop. We’ve committed to a minimum of 100 units across the country over 10 years.”
The brand opened its eighth Canadian location in March. The first opened in July 2021 in Toronto. The ninth location is opening in the middle of June in North York.
“We will expand coast to coast with no plans for any sub-franchising. It’s going to be JPK Capital owning and operating each location,” said Jenkyns.
The American-based brand, which began in 1994, opened its first franchised location in 1997 and by 2002 it had served the world one billion wings.
“I won’t speak to our sales volume but it’s no secret that when we open a location there’s hundreds of people lined up before we open,” said Jenkyns. “I think that’s something that’s been highly attractive to landlords.”
Sari Samarah, President, CEO and Broker of Record and Eli Vladimirsky, Director of Advisory and Transaction Services, for Value Insight Realty, are helping the Wingstop brand find locations in Canada.
“We started off on the smaller side, but I would say 2,200 square feet is the sweet spot for us.” said Jenkyns. “And we have some coming that are upwards of 3,000 square feet.”
The locations are not licensed.
“Wingstop is in the Fast Casual segment, and there’s not too many in Canada that occupy that space. If you were to look at a lot of the brands that people would perceive to be our competitors, a lot of them are sports bars who sell a ton of alcohol and wings are the loss leader,” said Jenkyns.
“For us, we’re fast casual. There’s no alcohol. The wing is the centre of the plate and sole focus for our brand. That’s probably the biggest thing that makes our brand positioning unique.
“We’re mostly in strip malls, but really for us we’re open to anything and everything. I think the common denominator throughout how we do business is a focus on quality. So when it comes to real estate, now that we have presence in the GTA and we’ve signed some really great spaces . . . now so many people are coming to us and now is the time we’re having to really focus on that quality and make sure with all the opportunities that we always maintain the focus on having the most prominent space. All of that presence you get from the street is only going to help our brand recognition. So it’s incredibly important to us that we have a nice frontage, quality real estate.”
How about a Wingstop in Ottawa???