Wing Zone featured in The Green Bay Press-Gazette

Wing Zone was recently featured in The Green Bay Press-Gazette with an article entitled "Green Bay Packers wins bring in green for businesses." The article focuses on the Super Bowl Sunday sales spike from the perspective of local Green Bay retailers. Wing Zone gets to start off the article with a business forecast from Wing Zone’s Green Bay franchisee, Randy Bardouche, who says he expects the Super Bowl Sunday rush this year to exceed the average volume of four full business days. Bardouche further discusses his preparation for the big day, and how many wings he expects to sell. Click here to view the full article!

Green Bay Packers wins bring in green for businesses
By NATHAN PHELPS

Take the volume from four regular business days and cram them into a few hours Sunday.

"It usually starts getting really heavy at 3 p.m. and goes until about 8 p.m.," said Randy Bardouche, an owner of Wing Zone, 1635 Main St. "If the Packers win, I expect it to go all night long, because that was the trend with the NFC championship game."

(Read More)

Wing Zone featured in the Dayton Business Journal

Wing Zone was recently featured in the Dayton Business Journal in an article discussing the rise in sales over Super Bowl weekend. Ramzi Anubtawi, local owner of the two Dayton Wing Zone locations, shared his experience with readers on the influx of business that he encounters on Super Bowl Sunday. On a typical day, Ramzi said sales range from $2,000 -$2,400 however for the upcoming Super Bowl Sunday, Ramzi hopes to reach $9,000 - $10,000 in sales which makes it his busiest day of the year. Similar increases in sales is experienced across the 80 Wing Zone locations, making the Super Bowl the busiest day for chicken wings throughout the year. Click here to view the article in its entirety.

Wing Zone readies for Super Bowl rush
By GINGER CHRIST. January 28,2011

When the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Green Bay Packers square off in Super Bowl XLV, Ramzi Anubtawi will be ready for the game day rush … of customers.

Anubtawi, the Dayton-area franchisee for Atlanta, Ga.-based Wing Zone, said Super Bowl Sunday is “just a crazy day.”

(Read More)

Wing Zone published in the Dayton Business Journal

Wing Zone was recently published in the Dayton Business Journal discussing expansion plans in Dayton and across the state of Ohio. Local Dayton franchisee Ramzi Anubtawi, who owns two existing Wing Zone restaurants, has plans to open at least three more stores in the market over the next five years including a new location in Vandalia by mid-2012. The first Wing Zone was opened in 2005, and the Dayton restaurants are the only locations in Ohio. This leaves a huge opportunity for brand development statewide. Click here to view the full article.

Wing Zone plans to expand restaurants across Dayton, Ohio
By GINGER CHRIST, Jan. 28,2011

The Dayton chicken wing market is furthering its wingspan.

Ramzi Anubtawi, the Dayton-area franchisee for Wing Zone, plans to open three more stores in the Dayton market in the next five years, including the launch of a store in Vandalia by mid-2012.

(Read More)

Wing Zone featured in The Leaf-Chronicle

Wing Zone was featured in an article entitled "Veterans hiring even Jan. 27 at LP Field," in the Leaf-Chronicle of Clarkville, TN. The article focuses on a hiring event for veterans and how franchising could be a great career choice for these veterans. Wing Zone provides a great opportunity for these veterans to make a career transition. Click here to view the full article.

Veterans hiring event Jan. 27 at LP Field
By Jake Lowary

Next week, veterans and their spouses looking for work will have the chance to meet with recruiters at LP Field.

The American Legion, Purple Heart Services and the Military Spouse Corporate Career Network are hosting the RecruitMilitary Opportunity Expo on Jan. 27 at the home of the Tennessee Titans.

(Read More)

After 18 Months of Work, Wing Zone Open in Panama

Wing Zone was recently featured by QSR in an article called “After 18 Months of Work Wing Zone Opens in Panama" The article was based off of an in-depth interview with Matt Friedman about Wing Zone’s first international location in Panama. Matt did a great job showing that this location has already been successful with first day sales tripling normal sales and talking about the strategy of finding owners locally-based to the international city was a must-do. Check out a portion of the story below or read the full article here.

After 18 Months of Work, Wing Zone Opens in Panama

For 18 months, executives at Atlanta-based Wing Zone laid groundwork for the brand’s launch into international expansion. In November, they finally tasted the fruit of that labor when the first international Wing Zone unit opened in Panama.

Matt Friedman, founder and CEO of the chicken wing chain, says it’s safe to say the opening was a success.

“Our opening day of business we did $4,800, which is three times what we’ll normally do on an opening day,” he says. “Our expected first week of sales will be somewhere between $25,000–$30,000, which is pretty awesome. (Read More)

Wing Zone Founders, Franchising Experts, Offer Advice on Should You Franchise Your Business

The North Central Florida Business Report just recently published a story entitled, “Should You Franchise Your Business,” in which Wing Zone Co-Founders, Matt Friedman and Adam Scott, laid out some advice for business owners who may be considering franchising. Matt and Adam began Wing Zone in Gainesville, FL out of their fraternity kitchen and turned it into an international franchise concept which has been selected by Entrepreneur as one of the best franchises in the country. Check out the story here:

Should You Franchise Your Business?
By Chris Eversole

Former University of Florida students Adam Scott and Matt Friedman got off to a slow start and had little money when they founded Wing Zone in the kitchen of Phi Kappa Phi fraternity in 1991.

Today, Wing Zone has 100 stores and has received awards from Inc. and Entrepreneur magazines as one of the country’s best franchise businesses.
Wing Zone is an example of the kind of success you can achieve if you turn a business into a thriving franchise. But getting from start to finish can be challenging. Here are the essential steps you’ll need to follow:

START WITH A GOOD CONCEPT
To create a lucrative franchise, you first have to have a business that:
• can be taught;
• can be profitable for you and the franchisee; and
• can work in various geographic areas.
Before turning to franchising, Scott and Friedman proved their business concept worked by opening and operating their own stores at college campuses throughout the Southeast.

NAIL DOWN THE DETAILS
Parker Van Hart is beginning to franchise his local restaurant, Buddha Belly, which offers a healthy, diverse menu ranging from various fried rice dishes to burgers. He’s changing the name to Tasty Buddha to broaden its appeal, and he’s developed a website aimed at franchisees.
Just as importantly, he has created a comprehensive procedures manual that runs more than 1,000 pages and is still growing. “I’m surprised at how big it is,” he says.

The Wing Zone manual is similarly detailed—including everything from temperature settings for the refrigerator, to what button to push on each machine and how to bag the wings.

(Read More)

Franchisee Profile: Matt Licht, Owner of Wing Zone Bellmore, NY

Location: 2760 Sunrise Hwy
Bellmore, NY 11710
Opened: October 15, 2010


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Q: Where are you originally from?
A: Freeport, NY, just 10 minutes away. I’ve lived here all my life

Q: Before Franchising, what were you involved with?
A: I went to UF as an Animal Science major planning on going to veterinary school, but I soon realized that the 4.0 GPA I’d need to do this wasn’t exactly what I was planning to do with my time in college… So, upon graduating, I decided to open the very first Wing Zone in New York with my dad in East Meadow, in October of 2004.
My parents were both teachers, so we were able to recruit some great local high school students to work in our store. One was Matt Dolan, a particularly great worker who is now my business partner and part-owner of the new store in Bellmore.

Q: How did you learn about the brand?
A: Wing Zone started in Gainesville, at UF where I went to school. Actually, my family is friends with WingZone founder Matt Friedman and his family. Our moms taught high school together. So it was really exciting for us to be able to take Matt’s great concept and bring it to the state of New York for the first time.

Q: Why was this brand the right fit for you?
A: I like the product. I like how in our areas there aren’t really any other places like us, if there are they aren’t even close to touching us quality-wise. Not a lot of wing places who do what we do. We love the product and what we produce. It’s a great franchise even through tough economic times—in the past few years we managed not just to keep our doors open but also to expand! I feel very fortunate, especially now that the economy is picking back up.

Q: How do you see the brand connecting with your local community?
A: We joined Chamber of Commerce, sponsor Little League teams, have a great relationship with local college, Hofstra. We also regularly give gift certificates to fundraisers. Community service and local involvement is really important to us. After all, this is my hometown, I love it here.

Q: What are your future goals? Development plans?
A: I’d like to open up about 3 more locations in Long Island, for a total of at least 5 restaurants. My long-term goal is to open my own brewpub!