Leicester chicken wings brand to take flight with national expansion

A Leicester-based gourmet chicken wings restaurant is aiming to open 50 new sites over the next two years in a major expansion plan.

Wingtrapp, which was set up in Leicester in 2018 and has since expanded to Birmingham, Nottingham and Coventry, says it wants to expand through the franchise model to become a national brand.

Co-founder Firoz Hafeji told trade title whichfranchise: “It took us the best part of four years to solidify our concept and set up the right foundations and infrastructure to allow us to franchise, but the vision was always to become a franchise brand and to be recognised nationally.

““Our target is to open 50 branches by the end of 2025. Over the last 18 months, we have set up franchise stores in and around the Midlands, and our next step is to continue this growth with stores opening up from Scotland in the north, and beyond London down south.”

Hafeji set up the company with two friends after a exiting a career as a business analyst for the likes of Thames Water, Severn Trent, Next and Shop Direct.

He added: “Our biggest achievement, looking back at where we started, having had little experience in the food industry, having overcome countless challenges, is to now be in a position where we successfully service four branches from our distribution centre.

“We have made many mistakes, and we felt these mistakes were needed before we started to franchise to allow all future partners a successful journey. Our target market is 18 to 35-year-olds, and we recognise that wings is an up-and-coming market in the UK. Our USP is our sauces – we offer 13 unique flavours to allow customers to experience our offerings again and again without getting bored of the same flavours each time.”

Wingtrapp claims to be “A to Z cooler than anything on the high street, from in store, packaging to [our] social media.”