Rick Ross’ investment in Wingstop appears to be a wise business decision.
Forbes reports that Ross’ interest in the fast-casual restaurant chain dates back to the early 2000s, but it was not until launching his music career that he became inspired to purchase a franchise.
“I began having those thoughts every time I pulled up to the restaurant,” he told Forbes. “Like, ‘Yo! This is something I need to do.’”
Ross secured his first location near Memphis, TN, and expanded to five locations by 2014. At that time, Ross mentioned that some of his stores saw an uptick of 50% in monthly revenue.
Fast-forward nearly a decade, and Ross now has nearly 30 locations under his belt as of 2023, with some locations earning $200,000 annually, as AFROTECH™ previously reported.
Moreover, across the board, Wingstop is emerging as a lucrative investment, as evidenced by its stock price climbing 1,135% since it went public in 2015, CNBC mentioned. In the past five years, its stock prices have surged 262%; over the last year, the share price has doubled by 133%.
Furthermore, the chain has opened 2,352 restaurants globally.
“So Wingstop’s growth is really unprecedented in the restaurant industry,” Andrew Charles, managing director at TD Cowen’s Restaurants, told CNBC. “If I went back to Chipotle in 2000 when the brand was emerging, we saw growth almost at Chipotle at Wingstop’s levels. But what’s different about Wingstop is the fact that it’s over 2,000 stores. You know there’s no other brand grand scale to the growth that Wingstop is doing.”
A press release shared by Wingstop cites further statistics reflecting its growth. It mentions a 45.2% increase in its system-wide sales, bringing the total to $1.2 billion. Additional statistics state that domestic same-store sales soared by 28.7%, and net income rose 69.9% to $27.5 million.
Wingstop projects it can triple its presence in the United States due to scaling at a “record pace.”
“The second quarter marked another industry-leading quarter for Wingstop, further solidifying our category-of-one position. With same-store sales growth of 28.7%, driven primarily by transactions, our AUVs now exceed $2.0 million, a target we set only two years ago when AUVs just crossed $1.5 million. Due to the strength and staying power of our multi-year strategies, we believe we have line of sight to a new AUV target of $3.0 million,” said Michael Skipworth, Wingstop’s president and CEO, in a news release. “This growth in AUVs has further enhanced our best-in-class unit economics, and as we continue to open new restaurants at a record pace, we believe there is an opportunity to more than triple our current U.S. footprint.”
