By Jessica Yun
Linger on the corner of Sydney’s Darlinghurst Road and Victoria Street (diagonally opposite the Coca-Cola sign) for long enough, and you may catch some pedestrians pausing on the bustling strip to pull their phones out and snap a photo of the signage.
“Flavour landing soon in Wings Cross,” reads the giant text emblazed on a store’s glass shopfront. US buffalo wing chain Wingstop is opening the doors to its first Australian restaurant this week – but there are plenty of people, it seems, who know that already.
Steve Kehl, Locky Paech, and Jono Spragg are opening a Wingstop store in Kings Cross, Sydney.Credit: Janie Barrett
“I was talking to four or five teenagers that came purely just to take some videos and selfies out the front of the store, and we’re not even open yet,” Wingstop Australia country manager Steve Kehl said.
Social media buzz and local media articles heralding Wingstop’s opening on May 17 have buoyed the small team tasked with the Texas-based chain’s roll-out Down Under. Fans in comment sections demanding to know when Wingstop is arriving in their city are reshaping store location plans.
The team’s apprehension about Wingstop’s reception is understandable. Australia, blessed with an abundance of fresh produce and with high expectations when it comes to food, can be a tricky market for overseas chains. Burger chain Wendy’s is on its second crack; Five Guys, with more than 1800 locations around the world, is taking a slower approach. The operator of Taco Bell, which has made three attempts, wants out. Starbucks is still struggling to turn around years of repeat losses.
But Wingstop’s affordable, shareable wings and “boneless” (chicken breast) offerings have found favour with younger consumers worldwide thanks to social media. Its flagship location in Sydney nightlife hotspot Kings Cross promises to attract customers late into the night.
“I think everyone looks to Australia … [as] a good test of any international brand,” said corporate operations director Locky Paech. “If [Wingstop] makes it here, then it’s going to be able to make it anywhere in the world.
“Everyone in Wingstop-land is talking about the Australian launch.”
Not a copy and paste, and not just a side dish
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 13 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.
The new Wingstop store in Kings Cross, Sydney.Credit: Janie Barrett
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.
Spicy Korean boneless wings, and Hawaiian Boneless Wings at the new store. Credit: Janie Barrett
“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.
Hot honey tenders being dipped into ranch sauce. Credit: Janie Barrett
“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.”
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.
“We went through every single comment and message … I didn’t see one [negative comment],” said Paech.
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