Buffalo Wing Wings detailed plans Monday to spread its brand farther across the United States and internationally, with the goal of having 1,000 units by 2013.
At the Cowen and Co. Consumer Conference in New York, executives at Buffalo Wild Wings highlighted areas of growth for the 732-unit sports bar and grill chain, which expects to add 100 new restaurants this year.
“There is a tremendous amount of the country yet to be developed for us,” said chief executive Sally Smith. “The entire West Coast shows great opportunity, and the Northeast also will be a focus.”
In particular, Smith said, greater Philadelphia area will open as a corporate market in 2011, and Buffalo Wild Wings will continue to build out its presence in Texas, which now has 86 locations, surpassing Ohio, where the company was founded in 1981.
The Minneapolis-based chain’s first international location is scheduled to open in May in Toronto, and 50 Canadian restaurants are expected to debut over the next five years.
New units will reflect the chain’s “intense focus on providing an unparalleled guest experience,” Smith said, as major investments are being made in upgrading its wall-to-wall TV package and its outdoor seating. Buffalo Wild Wings’ most recently opened in nontraditional venues, at the Fort Bliss military base and in a renovated former fire station in Minneapolis.
Chief financial officer Mary Twinem said Buffalo Wild Wings expects to grow earnings by 18 percent in 2011. Through the first nine months of fiscal 2010, earnings grew 26 percent compared with a year earlier, and the brand had 701 locations open at that time, compared with 620 a year earlier.
The chain expects to get some relief on chicken wing commodity prices, which peaked in the first quarter of 2010 at slightly more than $2 per pound before falling to $1.42 per pound.
Growth would be financed from operating cash flow, Twinem told investors, noting that Buffalo Wild Wings’ balance sheet contained no debt and had $71 million in free cash.
“Top and bottom line growth has allowed our unit growth,” Twinem said. “We can take advantage of real estate deals and international expansion, and we’re building Buffalo Wild Wings into one of the largest bar and grill concepts in the United States.”
Contact Mark Brandau at [email protected].