Jim Deering, president of Wingstop Restaurants, Inc., announced that the company broke two milestone records this month after landing contracts for eight new establishments in a single day and selling more than $500,000 in chicken wings in one week.

On December 17, the company inked agreements allowing for eight new Wingstop restaurants, including three in West Texas, two in Miami and three in Louisiana. Since the company began franchising less than four years ago, Wingstop has grown to 44 restaurants with another 60 currently under development.

Regarding signing eight new franchise development agreements in one day, Wingstop founder Antonio Swad said he is unaware of any other restaurant chains growing at that rate.

“We’re delighted, but not surprised,” Swad said. “The concept is tightly focused, designed around high quality food at attractive price points. Our brand partners see that this is a concept that works no matter what the economy is doing.”

In November, the company reported that same store/same period sales were up 27 percent over last year.

In the second week in December, Wingstop restaurants topped $0.5 million in weekly wing sales for the first time. Deering said he expects that breaking weekly sales records will become routine over the next six months.

“With 23 restaurants slated to open between now and April, we fully expect to see many more company records broken,” Deering said. “We will see weekly sales in excess of one million very soon.”