Wingstop Appoints Chief Growth & Experience Officer and Names Leader of Digital


DALLAS, March 13, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Wingstop Inc. (NASDAQ:WING) the award-winning wing concept with more than 1,200 locations globally, today announced that Maurice Cooper has been appointed to the newly created role of Executive Vice President, Chief Growth & Experience Officer, effective immediately. Maurice will maintain the responsibilities he held previously as Chief Marketing Officer, while also overseeing the end-to-end guest experience. Additionally, he will lead the Company’s revenue-driving initiatives, which include the national scale of delivery, and digital innovation. Maurice will continue to report to Charlie Morrison, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.

“Since June 2018, Maurice has served as Wingstop’s Chief Marketing Officer, leading our growth strategy transformation by introducing a national advertising platform to expand brand awareness and accelerate transactions. He has done an exceptional job of sharpening our definition of the Wingstop brand and helping us to expand to new audiences,” said Charlie Morrison. “This expanded role will leverage his broad expertise in marketing, guest experience design, and innovation, further positioning Wingstop for future growth on our path to becoming a top 10 global restaurant brand.”

Concurrently, Wingstop is also strengthening its leadership team through the appointment of Kevin Fish to Senior Vice President, Digital. In this role, Kevin and his team will further Wingstop’s long-term vision to ultimately digitize every transaction by enhancing the digital guest experience. In Kevin’s five years at Wingstop he was responsible for rolling out a new POS system across the Wingstop organization. He led the development and most recent launch of the all-new Wingstop.com and mobile app experiences which accounted for over 30% of domestic sales this past January.

“Kevin’s leadership in digital guest experience has been a driving force for Wingstop,” said Maurice. “We are thrilled to leverage his experience and continue to be a market leader by continuing to enhance Wingstop’s digital offerings and drive innovation in our e-commerce platform.”

About Wingstop
Founded in 1994 and headquartered in Dallas, Texas, Wingstop Inc. (NASDAQ: WING) operates and franchises more than 1,200 restaurants across the United States and nine other countries around the world. The Wing Experts’ menu features classic and boneless wings with 11 bold, distinctive flavors including Original Hot, Cajun, Atomic, Mild, Lemon Pepper, Hawaiian, Garlic Parmesan, Hickory Smoked BBQ, Louisiana Rub, Spicy Korean Q®, and Mango Habanero. Wingstop’s wings are always cooked to order, hand-sauced and tossed and served with our hand-cut, seasoned fries and fresh made Ranch and Bleu Cheese dips. The Company has grown its domestic same store sales for 15 consecutive years, has been ranked #3 on the “Top 100 Fastest Growing Restaurant Chains” by Nation’s Restaurant News (2016), was ranked #7 on the “Top 40 Fast Casual Chains” by Restaurant Business (2016), and was named “Best Franchise Deal in North America” by QSR magazine (2014). For more information visit https://www.wingstop.com or https://www.wingstop.com/own-a-wingstop. Follow us on Facebook.com/Wingstop and Twitter @Wingstop.

Forward-looking Information
Certain statements contained in this news release, as well as other information provided from time to time by Wingstop Inc. or its employees, may contain forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. You can identify forward-looking statements by the fact that they do not relate strictly to historical or current facts. These statements may include words such as “will,” “further,” “growth,” “continues,” “look forward,” “on our way,” “becoming,” “poised,” “looks to,” and other words and terms of similar meaning in connection with any discussion of the timing or nature of future operating or financial performance or other events. Examples of forward-looking statements that could appear in this news release include statements regarding anticipated growth resulting from our new strategic marketing partnerships.

Any such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of performance or results and involve risks, uncertainties (some of which are beyond Wingstop Inc.’s control), and assumptions. Although we believe any forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, you should be aware that many factors could affect our actual financial results and cause them to differ materially from those anticipated in any forward-looking statements. Please refer to the risk factors discussed in our Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2018, which can be found at the SEC’s website www.sec.gov. The discussion of these risks is specifically incorporated by reference into this news release.

Any forward-looking statement made by Wingstop Inc. in this press release speaks only as of the date on which it is made. We undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise, except as may be required by law.

Media Contact
Brian Bell
972-707-3956
bbell@wingstop.com