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Wing Zone founder dips into fryers to fight rising fuel costs

Wing Zone founder dips into fryers to fight rising fuel costs

As fuel costs take a big bite out of budgets, finding an alternative solution to the home-delivery dilemma is on everyone’s minds. But Matt Friedman, co-founder of the 100-unit, Atlanta-based Wing Zone chicken wing chain thinks he’s found an answer. He’s converting delivery cars and trucks at his company stores to run on recycled fryer oil.

Tell us about your chain’s oil recycling program.

We go through a substantial amount of oil. We thought about ways not only to recycle and shave costs but also become more profitable. We found a company in Georgia that converts diesel vehicles into cars that use vegetable oil. We said, “Let’s try this with at least one vehicle,” so on July 1 we rolled out the first car at a company-owned store in Atlanta. It’s been in operation for about six weeks and is a tremendous success.

Why did you decide to convert your cooking oil to fuel?

A typical restaurant goes through 30 to 50 gallons of oil per week and at roughly 20 miles per gallon, which is what we’re getting, this allows us to drive between 600 and 1,000 miles per week. Initially, we calculated that the vehicle could pay for itself in 12 to 18 months, but we’ve revised that to six months. Of course, capital investment must be made. You must have a diesel vehicle and then convert it to run on vegetable oil. It costs about $4,000 to do that above and beyond the cost of the vehicle, but we feel that the bottom line profit will be around $8,000 a year per vehicle.

How did you determine the cars’ projected savings?

We looked at how much we were spending on gas. The average store is spending approximately $20,000 a year on gas, and if we break it down, that’s between three and five vehicles per location.

How does the process work?

The oil is converted at the restaurant after it’s past its life. It then goes through a filtration process and is put into two 55-gallon drums that are used to store the oil. From there it goes into the vehicles.

How does it drive?

It’s a fun vehicle. The car does need to have diesel [fuel] in the car to start because it has a diesel tank. But after running it for about 60 seconds, you flip a switch and it operates on vegetable oil. It drives just like a normal car except for one funny thing: It gives off a French-fried chicken wing odor.

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