Dickey’s Restaurant Brands has taken its strong expansion plans to new heights as the barbecue concept finished 2021 with the addition of its 700th location, and more than 200 openings, making it one of the fastest growing franchises in the industry.

In 2021, Dickey’s Restaurant Brands’ tremendous growth can be attributed to the family-owned franchise driving impressive development for Dickey’s Barbecue Pit and launching three new virtual concepts: Wing Boss, Big Deal Burger, and Trailer Birds Hot Chicken.

Throughout the year, Dickey’s Barbecue Pit opened 54 restaurants. Along with those openings, the growing franchise business increased its virtual footprint across the country with the addition of 151 locations implementing Big Deal Burger, Wing Boss, and Trailer Birds for delivery and pickup only. Additionally, Wing Boss opened its first-ever brick-and-mortar restaurant in Addison, Texas in Q3.

The Texas-style barbecue brand is carrying its growth momentum into 2022. Dickey’s ended 2021 with record sales, finishing 16.5 percent up in same stores sales for the year against 2020, the second-highest sales year on record. Dickey’s has now seen 22 months of consecutive same-store sales growth. Guest satisfaction scores also hit a record high for the brand. In December, Dickey’s Restaurant Brands celebrated opening its 700th location worldwide across all of its concepts. Trailer Birds began serving the Ocoee, Florida, community, securing Dickey’s Restaurant Brands’ landmark opening. In addition, Dickey’s signed franchise deals to add 74 locations to the pipeline for 2022 openings.

“Dickey’s has made incredible strides over the last year and our growth shows we have loyal guests and quality food and that we’ve continued to learn from our 80 years’ experience. Our long-term success comes from being committed to serving our communities, taking care of our folks, and legit Texas BBQ,” says Laura Rea Dickey, CEO of Dickey’s Barbecue Restaurants, Inc. “At Dickey’s, we take our mantra of ‘Evolve or Fail’ very seriously. We will find a path or make one through our challenges to reach success. In 2021, we showed that our brand innovates and adapts to meet the fast-changing consumer environment, and new and existing franchisees are signing on because of this. I’m proud of the achievements we made in the past year and can’t wait to see what’s in store for 2022.”