While many franchisors are continuing to pull the plug on expansion, East Coast Wings & Grill is defying recession-conservatism, having recently signed a development agreement with seasoned multi-unit restaurant developer Jeff Rigsby and Rigsby Restaurant Group, LLC. Rigsby will be developing 10 East Coast Wings & Grill restaurants throughout North and South Carolina over the next five years.
“We are ecstatic about the new strategic partnership and the added knowledge and passion it brings to East Coast Wings & Grill,” said company CEO Sam Ballas. “Our philosophies for business models and restaurant operations are parallel. We couldn’t have picked a better partner to help us grow the brand.”
Rigsby has made a career out of serving chicken. Since 2001, he has grown Rigsby Restaurant Group, LLC into one of Bojangles’ largest franchise operators in the system. Rigsby has more than 600 employees and his 23 restaurants throughout North and South Carolina have continued to post positive same-store sales and customer guest counts in spite of the recession.
Prior to joining Bojangles’ in 1994 as the Director of Operations, Rigsby worked his way up through the Kentucky Fried Chicken organization, where he started as a 16-year-old frying chicken.
“East Coast Wings & Grill is consistently establishing itself as one of the strongest concepts in the entire industry,” Rigsby said. “I couldn’t be more excited about the new partnership and look forward to enhancing a franchise network that is poised for aggressive growth. When you put great people and great products together, great things happen.”
Proving the concept is successful in any economic climate with 33 consecutive quarters of same-store sales increases; East Coast Wings & Grill is far different from the norm in the chicken wing segment. With a focus on family rather than alcohol (alcohol sales attribute for less than 11 percent of total sales), the burgeoning brand creates a warm and inviting décor that leaves customers feeling a sense of community. And while its 75 different flavors of award-winning jumbo chicken wings will always be the chain’s staple, East Coast Wings & Grill provides high quality food other than wings, including wraps, salads, overstuffed sandwiches, burgers and more.
For further information about owning an East Coast Wings & Grill franchise, please email franchising@eastcoastwings.com, call 1-800-381-3802.
East Coast Wings & Grill (www.EastCoastWings.com), a fast growing casual dining buffalo wing concept, has 23 operating locations, 6 currently in construction, and 60 plus sold locations throughout the Southeast. The franchise not only caters to the chicken wing lover by offering 75 different flavors of jumbo chicken wings in nine heat indexes, but also serves salads, wraps, sandwiches, burgers, ribs and more, all using fresh not frozen ingredients. For East Coast Wing’s franchise information, please visit www.eastcoastwingsfranchise.com.
