‘If Wingstop can make it here, it can make it anywhere': The US chicken chain coming to roost
Founded in Texas in 1994, the chain has made a name for itself by selling buffalo wings in 12 flavours. Listed on US stock exchange Nasdaq, the $US7.5 billion ($11.7 billion) franchise has more than 2500 stores around the world, most based in the US and about 360 in Asia, Europe, Britain and the Middle East.
The chain is American but each international market has the freedom to localise the offering. The local team is Australian: Kehl spent three years at Craveable Brands' Oporto and Red Rooster and six years at KFC, and he has earned the nickname 'Chicken Man' from some colleagues and friends. Paech and corporate operations director Jono Spragg have spent most of their careers in pubs and hospitality venues.
While the menu will offer the same 12 flavours ranked by spice levels (Hawaiian at the lowest end of the scale, Atomic at the top) available in the rest of the world, the local team, keen to 'Aussify' the offering, is devising a 'secret menu' by combining two flavours.
'It's not a copy and paste of any other global market. We get to put our little Aussie twist on it,' said Kehl.
Australia has been in Wingstop's sights since at least 2017, when plans to launch with a different master franchisor fell through. Behind the foray is family office firm JPK Capital, headed by entrepreneur Jonathan Poulin, who brought Wingstop to Canada in 2022 and who has just opened its 15th store.
Said Kehl: '[It] has been hugely successful. They're going to open about one store every month. So a very aggressive expansion plan [that] has seen unbelievable growth from day one, and we want to replicate that here in Australia.'
Australia's fast food landscape is shifting as homegrown players such as Guzman y Gomez grow and scale aggressively. Appetite for chicken is growing as Australian palates increasingly embrace diverse variations, from Korean-fried chicken to Lebanese chain El Jannah charting their own national growth trajectory. Legacy brands Red Rooster and Oporto are ramping up advertising and Hungry Jack's has played catch-up.
But with no major chain focusing specifically on wings, Wingstop fills a gap in the market.
'In Australia, the perception is that it's a side dish, or it's something you get at the pub, whereas the movement globally and driven by the States is that it's its own thing, it's a proper meal, it's centre of plate as the hero,' said Paech.
'That's our challenge, to change that perception and show the local market that that's what we are. You can eat chicken five times a week.'
The plan is to set up in every Australian capital city and to have a network of more than 100 stores by 2035. Astonishing demand from culturally diverse areas prompts the team to confirm the chicken is indeed halal.
'People are screaming from these suburbs that we sort of knew would be targets, but that's even making us change and adapt our development schedule to feed the people,' said Paech. 'Western Sydney is a clear leader in the noise that's coming in.'
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Overseas, Wingstop has partnered with the NBA and linked itself to the hip-hop scene (rapper Rick Ross is an enthusiastic franchisee), something Wingstop is hoping to replicate here by sponsoring local sports teams and giving space for up-and-coming DJs to spin decks.
With US President Donald Trump upending the global trade order, is the team worried about any creeping anti-US sentiment?
Kehl and Paech shake their heads before the question is even out.
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