The founders of a popular Milton Keynes chicken wing restaurant have opened their first franchise store. Wing Kingz in Xscape was launched in October 2021 by owners Parm Bhangal, Aaron Murrell and Harminder Singh. Within six months the eatery was in high demand and attracted interest from potential franchisees.
In April, after 18 months of planning, the first franchise branch opened its doors in Sun Street, Canterbury. Parm said:
“As soon as we opened in Milton Keynes, people were showing great interest in the brand. We had people coming into the restaurant asking how to get involved and people thought we’d bought a franchise, but we actually started the brand ourselves.”
By spring 2022, the tenacious trio had started creating systems and processes in the Milton Keynes store and seeking advice from expert consultants on how to franchise Wing Kingz.
They also put small adverts out on the Franchise Direct website to see what leads would come in. Parm said:
“We didn’t want to just sell a franchise for the sake of growing the brand. We didn’t want to open a store and figure it out along the way, we wanted it figured out and ready to go. We wanted people to have the opportunity to actually make a profit.”
The new Canterbury store franchisees approached Wing Kingz with no previous hospitality experience, but with six weeks of training with the experienced Milton Keynes team, they are already flying.
The restaurant is in a prime location, opposite the entrance to the city’s cathedral, chosen specifically for footfall and exposure. Parm said:
“The eyeballs on the brand in this spot are huge,”
“Already the restaurant is busier than the Milton Keynes store because of the location. It is perfect for tourists and students and so is busy seven days a week.”
In the first week of opening, the new restaurant also gained a five-star environmental health officer rating. Parm said:
“That’s not easy to achieve in a brand-new food business,”
“We hit the nail on the head with operations. To be able to do that in week one is particularly impressive. We’ve achieved it by having good systems, processes and brand guidelines in place, so people know what to do and kitchen operations are efficient and correct. Without those it would never have been possible.”
The Wing Kingz team have spent over a year putting together their franchise package, which consists of an 800-page operations manual covering recruitment, training, legal, marketing and everything in between. Parm said:
“We wanted to ensure that investing in our franchise was a step-by-step, procedure-led business opportunity and I believe we’ve achieved that,”
“The Canterbury team had confidence in our ability as the franchisor. A franchisee wants to come into a business that’s operationally easy to run. They want guidelines and support for every area. We’ve created a package that we’ve tested, and we know it works.”
Two more Wing Kingz franchises are ready to launch in the next financial quarter and Parm, Aaron and Harminder are looking to expand to even more locations across the country. Parm added:
“I’m very proud of what we’ve achieved so far. Us three directors have very different skill sets and we’ve worked together to create a brand that people want to be a part of, not just as a customer but a franchisee.
“We are now looking to work with the right people and do the right things to build the brand alongside people who are as passionate about it as we are. They can be a big part of something that is going to be massive.
“We’d like to become the biggest and best chicken wing restaurant in the UK and hopefully internationally too. We’ve already had interest from people in Africa, India and Dubai.”
For more information about becoming a Wing Kingz franchisee visit the website here
