Verified — real FDD extraction
Not found in the SBA Franchise Directory under this name — though SBA loans to its franchisees exist; verify eligibility with your lender
WINGS ETC.
Other · independent · est. —
Wings Etc. is a casual grill-and-pub franchise serving chicken wings, burgers, and beer in a sports-bar setting. A franchisee operates a full-service restaurant and bar with a family-friendly pub atmosphere and game-day traffic.
WINGS ETC. net unit count grew +2.5% from 2023–2025 per its FDD Item 20.
New to franchising? Start here
A franchise is a business where you (the franchisee) pay a company (the franchisor) for the right to open and run a location using their brand and system — think a local Anytime Fitness or Taco John's owned by a small-business owner, not the corporation.
Before you can buy in, U.S. law requires the franchisor to give you a Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD) — a long legal filing covering its fees, finances, and history. The numbers on this page come straight from that document:
- Franchise fee — the one-time cost to buy in.
- Royalty — the ongoing cut of your sales you pay the franchisor.
- Item 20 — how many locations opened and closed, the basis for our verdict (from Proven & strong down to Distressed — or Too new to judge).
The verdict
Proven & steady
Distress
A real track record with an unremarkable region of the ledger: neither the growth nor the exits stand out, for better or worse. The main concern in the record: too many owners are failing outright rather than selling.
Exit rate · latest year
1.9%
fiscal 2025, per Item 20
Cost to open
$374K–$2.9M
Item 7 total investment range
SBA loan defaults
10.9%
vs 14.8% avg across rated brands
Behind the verdict
the record, factor by factor · Item 20
3-yr trend · Item 20 Table 1
terminations + ceased-ops vs. all exits · Table 3
transfers vs. base · Table 3
actual vs. projected openings · Table 5
Item 19 disclosure + completeness
Systemwide units
2023–2025
Survival record
FDD Item 20 · outlet status by year
In fiscal 2025, 1 of 54 franchised outlets left the system — a 1.9% annualized exit rate. Not every exit is a failure — but this is the measurable floor.
Show the outlet tables ↓Hide the evidence ↑
| Status (FTC) | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Outlets at start | 80 | 80 | 80 |
| Opened | 4 | 1 | 3 |
| Transfers | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Terminations | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Non-renewals | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Reacquired by franchisor | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Ceased — other reasons | 5 | 1 | 1 |
| Outlets at end | 80 | 80 | 82 |
| Net change | 0 | 0 | +2 |
The lender's view
SBA 7(a)/504 loan performance · FY1991–present
Banks have made 73 SBA-backed loans to WINGS ETC. franchisees since 2006. Of the 46 that have resolved, 10.9% were charged off (defaulted) rather than paid in full, versus 14.8% across 576 rated brands.
10.9%
5 of 46 resolved defaulted
76.3%
avg. charged-off $ ÷ approved $
8.3%
default rate × loss severity
$709,708
what recent franchisees borrowed
58 mo
approval → charge-off, defaulted loans
3 vs 11
distinct banks — pulling back
Charge-off rate by loan approval year (%)
Loan performance by state
SOURCE: SBA 7(a)/504 FOIA LOAN DATA (DATA.SBA.GOV), FY1991–PRESENT · MATCHED TO WINGS ETC. BY FRANCHISE NAME · RESOLVED = CHARGED-OFF + PAID-IN-FULL
The owner's side of the deal
FDD × federal loan record
A typical WINGS ETC. buyer since 2020 borrowed $710K through SBA — about $80K a year in debt service. Against the brand's own disclosed median unit revenue of $1.4M, that is 5.7% of every dollar the store takes in — before rent, payroll, food, or royalty.
Who finances it
1st Source Bank
23.2% of this brand's loans
Who buys it
70.0%
first-time franchise owners
The rest already owned at least one other franchise. Across the corpus, brands bought mostly by repeat operators charge off at roughly 10% versus 17% for brands sold mostly to newcomers.
Does experience help here?
Not enough resolved loans to split
Computed from 73 SBA 7(a)/504 loans to WINGS ETC. franchisees joined to the brand's own FDD. Debt service assumes level amortization at the average disclosed term and rate. A lender's rate excludes its loans to this brand, so it reads the lender, not the brand.
What it costs — and what it drags
FDD Items 5–7 · fees, investment, royalty
Buying in means a $40K franchise fee (Item 5) and a total investment of $374K–$2.9M (Item 7). The franchisor publishes an earnings claim (Item 19) — read its methodology closely.
To open (Item 7)
$374K–$2.9M
all-in investment range
Franchise fee (Item 5)
$40K
upfront, one-time
Royalty (Item 6)
5%
of sales, ongoing
Your figure — cross-check against this brand's Item 19 and current-owner validation.
Royalty you'd pay / yr
$50K
5% of sales, before profit
Over a 10-yr term
$500K
royalties alone, excl. ad fund
This is not profit. It's the only money the FDD actually pins down — what you put in, and the royalty you owe on every dollar of sales. Your real take-home depends on labor, rent, food cost, and ramp-to-breakeven, none of which any FDD discloses.
Build a real pro-forma for WINGS ETC. with an independent CPALabor record
US Dept. of Labor enforcement · franchisee-level · FY2005–present
Federal investigators have concluded 2 wage cases against operators of this system, recovering $6K in back wages for 89 workers. These cases name franchisee-owned locations, not the franchisor itself.
Concluded cases
2
Back wages owed
$6K
Employees affected
89
Since 2020
0
Read this carefully. The employers in these cases are individual WINGS ETC. franchisees — separately owned businesses operating under the brand name — not WINGS ETC. itself. The franchisor is not the respondent and in most cases is not a party. What the record shows is how this system's operators run their payrolls, which is worth knowing before you become one of them. Counts rise with system size and with age: a 20-year-old, 10,000-unit system will out-count a young one regardless of conduct. Source: DOL Wage and Hour Division concluded compliance actions, FY2005–present, most recent finding 2019.
Modeled risk
FDD Risk Score · modeled from the public record
Modeled from the public record, this brand sits mid-pack: riskier than 43% of systems we score.
Risk percentile
43 / 100
Loan-corroborated
Modeled SBA charge-off
11.6%
Observed SBA charge-off
10.9%
Top drivers: Investment ceiling (log) (lowers) · System size (log units) (raises) · Share financed by high-loss lenders (lowers) · Item 3 litigation (log) (raises). 15+ resolved loans stand behind this estimate. A linear scorecard built from this brand's own disclosure figures plus the federal loan record behind its franchisees; full spec and cross-validated accuracy on the methodology page. A score is context, not a verdict.
Distress signals
news-sourced · bankruptcies, closures, lawsuits
No recent closures, bankruptcies, or major lawsuits found in the news for WINGS ETC.. That's a good sign — but it reflects news coverage, not a guarantee.
A broker is paid by the franchisor to place you. An independent CPA is paid by you — and the job is pressure-testing WINGS ETC.'s numbers, including talking you out of a bad deal.
Talk to an independent CPA before you buy →WINGS ETC. franchise questions, answered from the filings
What percentage of WINGS ETC. franchises closed last year?
In WINGS ETC.'s latest FDD Item 20 (fiscal 2025), 1 of 54 franchised outlets left the system — an annualized exit rate of 1.9%. That counts terminations, non-renewals, and "ceased operations — other reasons." There is no official failure rate, and not every exit is a failure, but this is the measurable floor.
How much does a WINGS ETC. franchise cost?
Per WINGS ETC.'s 2026 FDD, buying in requires an initial franchise fee of $40K (Item 5) and a total initial investment of $374K–$2.9M (Item 7).
What royalty does WINGS ETC. charge?
WINGS ETC. charges an ongoing royalty of 5.0% of gross sales, per Item 6 of its 2026 FDD.
Does WINGS ETC. disclose earnings (Item 19)?
Yes — WINGS ETC. makes a financial performance representation in Item 19 of its 2026 FDD, reporting a median unit volume of $1.4M. Read it closely: franchisors choose which units and which metrics to include.
How often do SBA loans for WINGS ETC. franchises default?
Across 73 SBA-backed loans to WINGS ETC. franchisees since 2006, 5 of the 46 that have resolved were charged off — a 10.9% default rate, versus about 14.8% across all rated franchise brands. This is the lender's-eye view of franchisee failure, drawn from public SBA 7(a)/504 FOIA data and independent of the franchisor's own disclosures.