WingsUp! Restaurants, a fast-growing takeout and delivery brand specializing in fresh chicken wings, is ramping up its national and international expansion plans with new locations opening in Vancouver and Surrey, and ambitious targets across Canada and the United States.
“We have 37 stores, mostly in Ontario. We have one in Calgary and we just opened in Vancouver,” said Darren Czarnogorski, President of WingsUp! Restaurants.
The brand, which started in Milton, Ontario in 1988, has a loyal customer base thanks to its focus on fresh, never frozen wings and gourmet sauces. “For the longest time it was just one store. It built the following in the community. People really love the fresh never frozen chicken wings and the gourmet sauces and things like that,” said Czarnogorski.
The second WingsUp! location opened in Burlington, Ontario in 1995, and growth has steadily followed, including recent expansions westward.
The brand is actively looking to expand further in northwest Calgary. “Finding locations is a little bit tough just because it’s a very, very tight market when it comes to real estate it seems like,” said Czarnogorski.
In British Columbia, WingsUp! is beginning construction in Surrey and a recent opening on Kingsway in Vancouver.
Looking ahead, Czarnogorski has clear expansion goals: “For the Alberta market, we’re targeting about 30 restaurants between Edmonton, Red Deer, and Calgary. We think that’s kind of a reasonable amount of restaurants given the population and the growth that’s happening in Alberta.”
He added: “In the B.C. market, I would say it’s about similar, 30 to 40 restaurants. There’s the Lower Mainland, which can have quite a few restaurants as well. Surrey as well as Vancouver Island. So, there’s a lot of growth there for sure.”
While WingsUp! is focused on Ontario, Alberta, and B.C., Czarnogorski said they’ve had requests from other provinces. “We get requests sometimes from the East Coast, Newfoundland and Nova Scotia, and those are great markets. We’re just not 100% ready to jump into those.”
The brand is also setting its sights on the U.S., where it recently cleared a key hurdle. “We just got our FDD (Franchise Disclosure Document) about six months ago,” he said. “The U.S. states that we’ve kind of identified are Texas and Florida. And now recently we kind of identified Georgia as another potential nice spot to open with a lot of potential.”
When it comes to footprint, the brand is a takeout and delivery model, not a full dine-in restaurant. “In Canada, we target anywhere from like 1,200 to 1,600 square feet. In the U.S. it’ll be closer to about 1,500 to 2,000 square feet.”
“We’re not big on seating, maybe at a maximum 20 seats. We really focus on delivering to people’s homes and people coming in for takeout,” he explained.
So, what separates WingsUp! from competitors in an increasingly crowded space?
“I would say first and foremost we focus on quality. A lot of places will have wings as an afterthought. We don’t really get into beer that much. Like we have a few restaurants that are licensed, but we’re not focused on alcohol sales,” said Czarnogorski.
“We focus on our fresh, never frozen chicken wings, focused on our gourmet sauces and making sure we deliver on a nice experience. And I would say that’s the biggest differentiator.”
As for site selection, Czarnogorski is clear about what makes a great location: visibility, accessibility, and proximity to residential areas. “We like parking, especially in suburban areas. We want convenience so people can come and go and pick up their products,” he said.
“We always want to be in the centre of good urban density because we do a lot of evening and late-night deliveries, people sitting, watching Netflix, ordering Amazon and they want to order food. So we fill that void and we want to be close to their homes, be able to deliver quickly within 20–30 minutes. And that’s our focal point.”
WingsUp! continues to serve up a strong growth trajectory while staying close to its original formula—delivering quality wings with speed and consistency to hungry customers across Canada.
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