BWLD - Buffalo Wild Wings

[rkbabang]

I don't own BWLD and haven't looked at them, but I did just hear them mentioned in the Middleby (MIDD) conference call.  Middleby's CEO said something about meeting with BWLD to try to convince them to up-scale their food quality a little bit.  He said right now their kitchen is pretty much just a bunch of microwaves.  I've never eaten there, but that doesn't sound very appetizing.  I can get frozen pre-cooked wings at the grocery store, microwave them, and dip them in sauce at home.  Do they depend on their beverage sales more than their microwaved wings?

 

Wow, Selim A. Bassoul is really off base with the following comments...

 

"So, the Buffalo Wild Wings figured out how to do that, okay. Now, the problem is that chain, that CEO was fired early this year. That's my feeling is finally now that chain is having new leadership and they are working with us to figure out a way to get the kitchen and the food better, which for years they have used microwave, mostly microwave, to rethermalize pre-cooked food that they got from their supplies, and that chain kept on, it's a large chain, kept on shrinking."

 

per:

https://seekingalpha.com/article/4073000-middlebys-midd-ceo-selim-bassoul-q1-2017-results-earnings-call-transcript?part=single

 

Firstly, Sally Smith has not been fired. Marcato is pushing for her to resign, and we'll see if that happens eventually. My guess is no. The franchisees like her. She also has a good long-term track record at BWLD, so guys like ISS support her. 

http://ir.buffalowildwings.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=1027765

 

Secondly, they have a grill and many fryers. They fry their wings. This video is a bit dated, but it shows their kitchen:

 

Shrinking? Seriously...? Bassoul needs to pop open a BWLD press release, before making anymore comments. 

 

I'm surprised Bassoul is bad mouthing potential clients in public. He's got serious balls or MIDD has a real competitive advantage...

 

His comments on BWLD were so off it seems like he must be mixing them up with a different company.

 

edit: now that i reread his statements, i think he was saying BWLD figured things out but "another large chain" is still mostly microwaves and they keep shrinking. Talking about Chillis or Applebees?

 

Whoa, I think I misunderstood him.  You could be right.

 

[bci23]

Don't give BWLD mgmt credit for being "good capital allocators", If you saw how they make capital decisions internally you would cry. Mgmt is overpaying for franchises in order to hit their EPS growth targets, real estate decisions (new stores, relocations, closures) are made by middle management with little/no thought given to the financials, and their Guest Experience Captain is a complete waste of money and is whats causing their labor rates to get out of control. They are getting no sales lift from it. Once the hype goes away, BWLD will be a great activist target in my opinion. This mgmt team is just riding the wave of a strong/popular brand and good times for restaurants.

 

Well, Marcato won the proxy contest, CEO stepping down.

 

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-buffalo-wild-marcato-idUSKBN18T2OS?il=0