Buffalo Wings & Rings courts City Hall

Buffalo Wings & Rings is laying the groundwork for its entry into the Cleveland market, and in the neighboring suburb of Parma, Ohio, the casual-dining chain is ahead of the game in community relations and local-store marketing, meeting with the mayor and local business leaders even before the local operator and managers have been awarded a franchise. The novel approach to development came about by happenstance for Buffalo Wings & Rings, but the chain anticipates it leading to rapid growth in Northeast Ohio, executive vice president Philip Schram said. A real estate connection of his had just recently purchased a major retail center in Parma and approached him about partnering with Buffalo Wings & Rings as a marquee tenant. The acquaintance also introduced Schram to Parma Mayor Tim DeGeeter, who struck the executive as young, smart and keen to bring an emerging restaurant brand to the city. “If I had to put a Buffalo Wings & Rings in Washington, D.C., I’d call the President of the United States,” Schram joked. Cleveland and its suburbs create an important development market for Buffalo Wings & Rings because they are comparable in size and demographics to its headquarters city of Cincinnati, where the brand already has seven units. Schram said Buffalo Wings & Rings is targeting about eight or nine restaurants in Cleveland and major surrounding cities like Parma, which is the seventh-largest city in Ohio. “Parma has a strong middle-class community, so the Buffalo Wings & Rings concept is perfect for the personality of the city,” Schram said. This year, Buffalo Wings & Rings relaunched the brand in Cincinnati to reinvigorate its longest-tenured market, incorporating many recent upgrades to the menu, décor and service styles that proved successful in new markets like Texas. Buffalo Wings & Rings seeks to position itself as an upscale option in the sports-theme bar-and-grill segment, with a more diverse menu — including specialty burgers, wraps and salads — and an environment that caters more to families than other chicken wing chains. Its food-to-alcohol-sales ratio is 3-to-1, which produces very competitive food costs and profit margins in comparison to other brands in the segment. In meetings with Parma city officials, the brand has been able to tout the kind of crowd it typically attracts as something that could mutually benefit other proposed tenants for the city’s new retail development. “We have always had a strong community feel, even though we are a brand with a little less name recognition,” Schram said. “We focus on families because we fit well in places where people appreciate the great food and atmosphere we provide.” The chain is looking to accelerate growth in the coming year by talking up its average unit volume, which increased an average of 13 percent year-over-year from 2005 to 2013, as well as its new restaurant prototype. The 30-year-old brand offered a development incentive to franchisees in 2014 in the form of a $30,000 discount off the $35,000 franchise fee.