Franchising
How 1 casual dining chain is competing with fast casuals
After testing its new chicken brand at a Cincinnati festival, Buffalo Wings & Rings is rolling out the concept via ghost kitchens.
April 29, 2021 by Cherryh Cansler — Editor, FastCasual.com
Buffalo Wings & Rings, a Cincinnati-based sports franchise, is taking a page from the playbooks of fast casuals and QSRs, which do far more off-site business than causal dining brands.
After testing its newly created chicken brand — NBL CKN — at a local festival in 2019, the 85-unit casual dining chain decided to launch the concept as a ghost kitchen operating at select BW&R locations.
"We decided to do a digital concept to have more presence in the delivery space," Field Marketing Representative William Stone said in an interview with FastCasual.
He and his team spent nearly two years perfecting the delivery and carry-out concept, which specializes in chicken tenders and sandwiches, finally launching it this month within BW&R locations in Crestview, Oakley and Cincinnati, Ohio, as well as in Chicago.
Although Stone would not reveal sales information, he said the chain plans to add NBL CKN to 29 of its existing locations.
"The digital space is very crowded with new concepts and existing concepts," he said. "Until we prove the concept out, we will not have those specific numbers available."
He added, however, that the strategy costs franchisees little to nothing.
"There is a $0 investment to existing restaurants," he said. "You only need a couple of ingredients and some different packaging to execute the brand. The company decides who will participate in the Ghost Kitchen, but we would love for it to go to every available restaurant."
Although the chicken concept is primarily a ghost kitchen, there is one brick-and-mortar NBL CKN inside of Jungle Jim's in Cincinnati.
"We took over the space that was previously occupied by Red Sesame," Stone said. "It opened right before the COVID-19 pandemic began last year."
Getting the word out
Launching a new concept can be hard, especially during a pandemic, but Stone said his team hosted a pop-up parade in March to help spread the word about NBL CKN.
"The idea for the parade came from looking for something fun to do in the era of COVID-19 that is fun, social and safe," he said. "We have also been promoting NBL CKN through social media outreach and word-of-mouth."
Entering a competitive space
Buffalo Wings & Rings isn't the only chain, nor is it the first, to extend revenue streams by creating ghost kitchen concepts.
Darden-owned Smokey Bones, a casual chain based in Florida, partnered last year with Kitchen United to open two ghost kitchens — The Burger Experience and The Wing Experience, and Fazoli's, an Italian fast casual brand based in Kentucky, made a similar move earlier this year with its Wingvilleconcept.
Granite City Brewery, headquartered in Bloomington, Minnesota, operates Famous Dave's ghost kitchens within seven of its locations, as well as seven franchisee-owned ghost kitchens from the kitchens of another brand.
Brinker International, which owns Chili's, also took a piece of the virtual action, launching "It's Just Wings" in June 2020. Chili's chefs prepare the food, and customers receive orders from third-party delivery companies. The concept is generating sales at a rate of $150 million per year.
Dan Fleischmann, vice president of Kitchen Fund, a venture capital firm that focuses on the restaurant industry, told CNBC, however, that brands must be careful, warning that most won't be able to make the economics work.
"It's still such a low-margin business to begin with, the owner taking 30% out and then having to go through an aggregator like DoorDash or UberEats is really difficult," he said.
"You can't keep just throwing up virtual brands — at some point, there's saturation."
About Cherryh Cansler
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