Buffalo Wild Wings: The Management Structure Of A Restaurant

Teresa Stivale

According to Buffalo Wild Wings 10-K annual report, their leadership team “strives for operational excellence by recruiting, developing and supporting their highly qualified management teams and Team Members, and implementing operational standards and best practices within their restaurants.”

The Buffalo Wild Wings management structure consists of a General Manager, an Assistant General Manager and up to three other managers, as well as a Team Lead and Shift Leads, depending on the sales volume of the restaurant. BWW utilizes Regional Managers to oversee their General Managers in their company-owned locations, ensuring that they receive the training and support necessary to successfully operate their restaurants. Currently,

Due to the rather simple preparation of their menu items, the kitchen consists of fryers, grill and food prep stations that are arranged assembly-line style for maximum productivity. Given the menu and kitchen design, BWW is able to staff their kitchen with hourly Team Members who require only basic training before reaching full productivity. BWW does not require the added expense of an on-site chef. The ease and simplicity of their kitchen operations allows Buffalo Wild Wings to achieve the goal of preparing “casual dining quality food” with minimal wait

Their franchisees execute a separate franchise agreement for each restaurant opened, typically providing for a 20-year initial term, with an opportunity to enter into a renewal franchise agreement subject to certain conditions. The initial franchise fee for a single restaurant is $40,000. Franchisees typically pay a royalty fee of 5.0% of their restaurant sales. BWW also charge franchisees an advertising fee in the amount of 3.5% of their restaurant sales, of which 3.0% was contributed to BWW National Advertising Fund in 2013 and the remaining 0.5% was spent directly by the franchisee or through marketing co-ops. Buffalo Wild Wings current form of franchise agreement allows them to increase the royalty fee and the required contribution to the Advertising Fund by 0.5% once every three years. All of BWW franchise agreements require that “each franchised restaurant operate in accordance with the companies defined operating procedures, adhere to the menu established by BWW, meet applicable quality, service, health and cleanliness standards and comply with all applicable laws.” Buffalo Wild Wings ensures these high standards are being followed through a variety of means including mystery shoppers and announced and unannounced quality assurance inspections by their franchise consultants. They may terminate the franchise rights of any franchisee who