Atomic Wings Franchise Grows Throughout New York With the Help of Sports Fan Fahad Samad

Franchisee Fahad Samad knows good chicken wings. That’s why he chose to franchise with Atomic Wings. 

Before deciding to become a business owner with the emerging chicken wing concept that serves all-natural, hormone free wings alongside 16 proprietary flavors, Samad started his career with Topps Trading Cards as an analyst where he has worked for over eight years. Over the last two years, he’s opened three Atomic Wings locations across New York, marrying his love of sports and satisfying wings to make game time enjoyable for his community.

“Atomic Wings has high-quality, good wings hands down. And for the Muslim people in the area, the option to eat halal wings is great.” said Samad. “Generally, there’s not a lot of opportunity to eat halal wings, and that’s just another thing our brand is able to provide. Wings are a good source of food during sporting events, and if people want to enjoy wings during the game we can give them the halal option as well.”

Before opening his first Atomic Wings and bringing crispy, tender halal wings to New York’s Northside, Samad said he had little interest in franchising at all. He notes that it was his conversation with CEO Zak Omar and his general love for the delicious product that sold him on the idea. 

“Zak briefly spoke to me about it, and he said he would love for me to join. Before that I wasn’t really involved in the food business,” said Samad. “It’s been great to work with a system that’s already established, and it’s incredible to be able to lean on that support. That, and the wings! There’s really no good place around here that you can get good wings that aren’t breaded, and Atomic Wings fills that need.”

Additionally, Samad said it was important to him that he invest into a concept that made sense when it came to food delivery. And given the way the restaurant industry has shifted during the COVID-19 pandemic, his point is one that has proven to be important. It was through his persistence and dedication to quality food and service that he was able to increase his sales by 100%.

“I wanted to invest in something that was heavy on delivery, and to me something like a burger and fries is not something that travels very well,” said Samad. “It’s great if you want to go out and eat, but if you want to pack it up and deliver it to someone it’s not ideal. That’s not the case with wings.”

Since signing on with Atomic Wings, Samad has become involved with multiple charity organizations throughout the city to donate food when he can — organizations like ICNA Relief, Muslims Giving Back and ICNA’s Women & Children Transitional Housing. Samad said he has worked with these charities on a regular basis over the last year, but during the pandemic has doubled down his efforts and donations to help fill in the gaps for other restaurants that have had to close their doors.

“We work with ICNA Relief — we cook about 100 meals a week and pack them up, and ICNA picks up the food every Saturday. During the coronavirus crisis things have been pretty bad. ICNA normally works with other restaurants as well, but because most places have been closed, we were sending out 300–400 meals a week — some days even doing close to 200 meals per day,” said Samad.

As far as his plans for the future with Atomic Wings, Samad says that with the success of his first two stores solidified he is eager to see his third location in Long Island City grow and to be equally successful. 

“The Northside location is pretty successful, and our Manhattan location has done pretty well too,” said Samad. “We recently opened a new location in Long Island City, so my plan is to make that location just as successful as the other two.”

Startup costs to open one Atomic Wings range from $170,400 to $377,355. The initial investment to begin operation of a multi-unit development business for a required minimum of three Atomic Wings franchises is between $197,400 and $404,855. For more information about Atomic Wings, please visit https://www.atomicwings.com/franchising.