The world has developed a taste for chicken wings over the past few years, and it's a trend that a variety of limited-service restaurants are embracing. The National Chicken Council estimated that in 2012, more than 13.5 billion chicken wings were marketed, not including the wings sold attached to the whole bird. The famous football food is no longer for just wing-only concepts like Wingstop and Buffalo Wild Wings. Suddenly, they have a lot of competition from pizza chains to McDonald's, which rolled out Mighty Wings this year.
Technomic, which measures food trends, found that 22 restaurants added wings over the last year, and that there were 5.8 percent more wings on the menu compared to two years ago. With all that competition, some restaurants known for its wings are branching out and diversifying their menus.
"We've recognized for years the increased consumer demand for wings," said Reid Nolte, director of marketing at WOW Cafe American Grill, known for serving a variety of wings. "But certainly when McDonald's adds them to their menu it puts a stamp on mainstream cultural popularity. All walks of life, from kids, to women, to college students, to professionals, love to dig into a pile of wings, sauced up with their favorite flavors."
The USDA is predicting an almost 3-percent increase in total chicken production for 2014, and while purchasing co-op SpenDifference released a report this week predicting most poultry prices to fall in 2014, it expects to see a 2- to 3-percent jump in the cost of wings.
Last summer's drought caused an increase in the price of chicken feed, which made farmers decrease flock sizes but raise bigger chickens. That has also contributed to fewer wings; you can only get so many wings from each chicken, no matter how large they are.
The Super Bowl, which occurs in early 2014 and is the chicken wing's most popular event, also leads to higher demand and price increases.
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"Today, whole wings are selling at wholesale on average of $1.23 per pound. In January of 2013 they were selling close to $2.10 per pound," said Thomas Super, VP of Communications for the National Chicken Council. "So an increase from $1.23 of where we are today would not be surprising. Wing prices usually peak leading up to the Super Bowl."
Is McDonald's a threat?
The biggest threat from the addition of wings to the McDonald's menu is the increase in price to the consumer, Nolte said, relative to the shortage of supply created by the bulk purchasing of futures by McDonald's.
"This has been affecting us for several years," Nolte admitted. "Concepts like Red lobster, a seafood concept, have wings in the appetizer section of their menu. That says a lot right there. McDonald's entering the market will have an even bigger affect on pricing. However, we see a different consumer buying wings from McDonald's. Eating in a restaurant, watching sports and hanging with friends and family can never be replaced by a drive-thru window. "
Although McDonald's Dana Martin Sandemans wrote in an email to FastCasual.com that Mighty Wings resonated well with its customers and performed within the company's targeted expectation range, it "was not strong enough to offset" weak sales trends, Don Thompson, McDonald's chief executive, said in a blog post by Glen S. Woods on Seeking Alpha.
Price may have been the biggest issue, Woods said, since most McDonald's consumers expect prices there to be cheaper than fast casual restaurants, including BWW. Mighty Wings come in packs of three for $3.69, five for $5.59, and 10 for $9.69, nearly matching Buffalo Wild Wings. Another problem with the wing rollout was that the flavor may be too spicy for the average consumer, according to Seeking Alpha, which also stated that McDonald's lacked focus.
"Why would MCD allow a product to be introduced at a price point that one would pay at a fast casual or casual dining restaurant?" wrote Woods. "And why allow a product out that was too spicy for a lot of McDonald's customers? And while Mr. Thompson acknowledged the problem after the fact, one has to wonder why these issues were not addressed in development and market research."
The Golden Arches, however, still expects to sell 35 million pounds of wings before the LTO is gone, and Thompson said the wings will probably be back.
While McDonald's is stumbling a bit toward conquering the wing space, fast casual chains, including Buffalo Wild Wings, are capitalizing on the trend. BWW, for example, has grown from one store in Columbus, Ohio, in 1982, to 407 company-owned and 525 franchised stores throughout the U.S. Sales at the wing chain increased by 27.9 percent to $315.8 million, with net earnings of $17.9 million in Q3, according to the company. Same-store sales rose 4.8 percent for company stores and 3.9 percent for franchised stores.
While BWW is still focusing on wings, the fact that so many concepts are getting into wings is inspiring WOW to explore other menu items. The chain, which purchased and sold 738,833 pounds of wing last year, expects to do around the same this year. Instead of adding more wing varieties, it's diversifying the menu, focusing more on chicken sandwiches and boneless wings.
WOW's focus on boneless is spot on, according to Technomic, which found that they're preferred by 46 percent of consumers overall, and 69 percent of those are under 25.
"The increase in concepts offering wings together with increased prices from the farm have shifted our focus to new and innovative menu items," Nolte said. "However, wings will always be on our menu, every time, everywhere."
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Cover photo: Main.KitchenDaily.com
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