WingStop is now ThighStop as well

Wingstop, Pressured by Chicken Crunch, Starts Thighstop Brand
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Wingstop Inc. is paying more for chicken wings, which are increasingly hard to come by. In response, it’s creating a new delivery and carryout brand, Thighstop.

The move will let Wingstop save money by buying whole birds, instead of just the wings and breasts, which are seeing supplies dwindle amid a dearth of staff at chicken-processing plants.

“It will allow us to buy the whole chicken,” Chief Executive Officer Charlie Morrison said in an interview. “There’s a real supply constraint out there and it centers on the availability of workers to actually process the chicken. The amount of chickens that are being put in the supply chain is actually far lower than it has been in the past. It makes it a little trickier for us.”

Wingstop will run Thighstop as a virtual brand out of its 1,400 U.S. restaurants and sell bone-in and boneless thighs alongside fries and corn.

“Too often these days, thighs are stuck in the bottom of a bucket of chicken,” he said. “We believe that we can finally give thighs the focus and attention they deserve.”