Buffalo Wild Wings Inc. said on Wednesday that it hopes delivery, a focus on lunch and a new menu will help reverse a sales slide that is now in its third straight quarter.
Same-store sales at the Minneapolis-based chicken wing chain fell 1.8 percent at company-owned locations and 1.6 percent at franchise locations in the quarter ended Sept. 25.
“Our focus is to return to industry leading same-store sales,” CEO Sally Smith said in a statement. She said the chain’s FastBreak lunch, with a 15-minute guarantee, and its half-price Wing Tuesdays “are seeing initial success.”
Smith said the company will launch a new menu next week, including a new burger. The chain is implementing its Blazin’ Rewards loyalty program and has third-party delivery in 90 company-owned locations.
Buffalo Wild Wings stock is down 14 percent this year amid sales concerns, and is down by more than a third since September, when the chain’s stock last breached $200 per share.
The company’s weak stock price has led an activist investor, Marcato Capital Management, to put pressure on the chain to stop buying franchisees and instead sell company stores to operators.
Revenues at the company increased 8.5 percent to $494.2 million from $455.5 million. Net income increased 17.8 percent to $22.7 million, or $1.23 per share, from $19.2 million, or $1 per share.
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