Chicken wing concepts caught a nice tailwind from the World Cup

Wingstop didn’t have much to write home about during the second quarter, with same-store sales down by 7.5% as lower-income consumers, with whom the chain overindexes, continued to pull back on their spending.

That’s not to say there weren’t any bright spots, however, and perhaps the brightest came from the FIFA Men’s World Cup. On key match days, same-store sales “swung into double-digit growth,” according to CEO Michael Skipworth.

“Our core guests ordered for groups driving double-digit increases in average ticket and frequently choosing one of our bundled offerings,” he told analysts last month. “To us, that’s a really important insight. When our guests choose to treat themselves and come together for a group occasion, the Wingstop brand was top of mind.

“It shows us that the brand is still relevant.”

It seemed wings were, in fact, a go-to item during the global soccer event, which ran from June 11 through July 19 in various host cities throughout the United States, Canada, and Mexico. Wings Etc. Grill & Pub debuted a buy-one-get-one-free promotion in June for the tournament, which delivered a 17.2% increase in traffic versus the same period a year prior. The company also said orders were up 7.4%, while guest check size was up 15%. The BOGO promotion was so popular, Wings Etc. just launched a similar campaign for football season.

That said, wing concepts weren’t the only ones who caught a nice tailwind from the global soccer tournament. Chipotle set a one-day sales record with its Matchday BOGO promotion, for instance. CFO Adam Rymer also said about 300 Chipotle restaurants are located close to host stadiums and they experienced a 50-to-100-basis-point comp lift on gamedays.

Shake Shack and El Pollo Loco also reported a nice bump from the event. Shake Shack CEO Rob Lynch said the company strategically leveraged delivery partnerships during games to drive traffic to the brand.

“We saw (in) June and July with the World Cup, we partnered with those delivery partners to drive strong traffic growth,” he said. “The June boost from the World Cup in our app and delivery channels was approximately 90 basis points.”

El Pollo Loco CEO Liz Williams added that the chain’s ad campaigns during the World Cup provided a lift.

“Usually, people aren’t watching live sports in July, and we think that certainly got eyeballs on El Pollo Loco,” she said. “We wish we could have World Cup advertising in the month of July every year.”

Independent restaurants may have fared even better. Data from SpotOn analyzing transaction data from indies in nine World Cup metros — Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Houston, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Seattle — found that the five-and-a-half-week event drove a 40.6% increase in orders and 25.4% increase in checks on match days versus non-match days in host cities. Further, 31.3% of those restaurants reported a higher tip percentage during the event.

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