Wingstop has long held a goal to digitize every transaction. According to CEO Michael Skipworth, the next natural step of that journey is finally launching a loyalty program.
The fast casual will pilot the program in Q4 and launch it systemwide in 2026.
“Our loyalty program will drive a one-to-one experience and unique access to the brand,” Skipworth said during the brand’s Q1 earnings call. “We believe our loyalty program will be distinctive in the industry because we’re not taking the typical transactional approach within our design. The level of insights we have with our guests today plays a big role in informing the executional elements of a loyalty program.”
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Wingstop has heavily invested in its tech prowess over the past few years. Earlier in 2025, the brand unveiled a new kitchen operating platform called the Wingstop Smart Kitchen. The system features AI-driven demand forecasting that provides role clarity and efficiency for employees, which has improved accuracy, cut wait times in half to 10 minutes, enhanced product quality, and increased consistency. The platform also has a gamified visual kitchen display system and a customer-facing status tracking and order-ready screen. Wingstop believes the innovation will unlock new dayparts.
The Wingstop Smart Kitchen was in over 200 restaurants by the end of Q1. The chain hopes to complete the rollout by the end of the year.
“This is truly a game changer for our guests,” Skipworth said. “It’s a game changer for our team members, and it’s a transformation in our restaurants that we believe will be a catalyst on our path to $3 million AUVs.”
Going further back, two years ago Wingstop made investments in its database to build more sophisticated customer profiles. This led to a relatively new CRM platform, which helps the chain unlock first-party data at scale and personalize experiences across all channels. Following that was MyWingstop, the company’s proprietary digital ordering and customer engagement platform.
Working on hyper-personalization strategies, developing insights into guest behavior, and using a database with over 50 million users will power the upcoming loyalty program.
“We’re almost coming at this from a completely different angle from other brands in the industry because of the wealth of information insight we have,” says CFO Alex Kaleida. “A good example is the largest cohort we’ve seen in new guest acquisition has been that Gen Z, Millennial consumer. And we know they embrace brands that provide some type of experiential aspect to their engagement. And so a loyalty program is something we see as a way to enable that. And it’s something we’ve been working on, again, tied back to our strategies over the last couple of years as we’ve seen our business scale and an opportunity for us to move up that path to $3 million AUVs.”
The tech investments come as same-store sales lifted 0.5 percent in Q1, inclusive of transaction growth. AUV came in at $2.1 million, and digital mix increased to 72 percent. Development was on fire as well; Wingstop opened a record 126 units in Q1.
Wingstop considered it a successful quarter, especially considering it lapped two consecutive years of over 20 percent same-store sales growth and faced low consumer sentiment and bad weather with the rest of the QSR industry.
Skipworth said the elevated consumer concern is concentrated among certain geographies and not broad-based, suggesting it’s a near-term issue. Regardless, the CEO emphasized that Wingstop has seen this environment before and has triumphed, proven by its 21 straight years of same-store sales growth.
All signs are still pointing up. In March, Wingstop had its largest single month of guest acquisition on record. Guest scores and survey data show that brand love is at an all-time high. The chain is also measuring record levels on brand health metrics and showing improvements in operating KPIs at the restaurant level.
“We believe the strengthening of our underlying fundamentals position us to emerge from this macro environment in an even stronger position with the consumer,” Skipworth said.
The brand sees plenty of room for more growth. Wingstop claims it is only winning 1 percent share of its core demand space. Meanwhile, more mature QSR brands are winning 20 percent in their respective segments.
The fast casual has means to boost that market share, like its ad fund, which is growing by a double-digit percentage this year. Additionally, Wingstop’s NBA partnership has given it a “top-tier presence,” Skipworth said. The chain was the most seen brand during NBA games this season. The creative featured the company’s new Crispy Chicken Tenders that relaunched in Q1. Customers ordering the tenders are behaving in the same way as the Chicken Sandwich, meaning it’s an individual occasion and the guest is returning to explore the rest of the menu.
“We will continue to execute our proven strategies which consist of scale and brand awareness, driving menu innovation, expanding our delivery channels, leveraging data-driven marketing and enhancing our digital transformation,” Skipworth said. “It is clear to us the impact our strategies are having on our business. The underlying fundamentals of our business remains strong.”
Wingstop finished Q1 with 2,250 U.S. restaurants and 388 international locations. In Q1, 50 franchisees opened a restaurant in 11 markets and 33 states. Given the record performance in Q1, the brand updated its guidance to 16 to 17 percent unit growth in 2025, which implies net expansion between 410 to 335 stores globally. The chain is working off a global development pipeline filled with more than 2,000 restaurants.
These new stores continue to perform at a higher level. New stores are seeing more than $1.8 million AUV compared to $1.2 million three years ago.
Wingstop expects U.S. comps growth of 1 percent for fiscal 2025, a change from the previous prediction of low to mid single digits. Same-store sales are expected to decline by mid-single digits in Q2, but that’s primarily due to lapping a two-year comp of 45.5 percent, and not the macroeconomic environment. As the laps ease in the second half of 2025, the fast casual projects a return to growth in Q3.
“Within the context of this more challenging macro operating environment, I firmly believe that 2025 will be another proof point for the resiliency of our model and will continue to deliver industry-leading returns for our brand partners and shareholders,” Skipworth said. “We will remain disciplined on the investments that fuel this growth over the long term and are confident in our strategies we are executing to scale Wingstop into a top 10 global restaurant brand.”
