Loan record only — SBA loans matched by SBA franchise code, FDD not yet in our corpus
Wing Zone
Chicken wings · parent company: not identified
Wing Zone is a chicken wing franchise focused on flavored wings for delivery and takeout. A franchisee operates a small, kitchen-centric storefront serving casual meal customers ordering for pickup or delivery.
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. Most numbers on this page come from that document; others come from federal SBA loan records and labor and census data, each labelled with its source:
- 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, transferred and left the system, the main basis for our verdict, which rates how strong the disclosed record is, or says when the system is too new, the filing too old, or the disclosure too thin to judge.
Our rating · opinion
Not enough disclosure
We hold no FDD extraction for this brand, so there is no disclosed record to judge. Any loan figures shown are independent federal records.
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Data as of 2026-10-29. Figures come from Wing Zone's public FDD filings and SBA FOIA loan records (through FY2026), extracted by us and possibly containing errors. The rating is our opinion, not investment, legal, or tax advice. Franchisor or owner and see something wrong? Report a correction — we review every request.
Behind the verdict
the record, factor by factor · Item 20
No score available.
Systemwide units
Insufficient trend data.
We hold no Franchise Disclosure Document for Wing Zone, so this page carries no exit rate, fees, investment range, or Item 19 earnings claim. What it does carry is the federal loan record: every SBA 7(a) and 504 loan made to Wing Zone franchisees since 1991 and how each one ended. That is an independent, sourced record of how SBA-financed owners repaid their loans — it covers only SBA borrowers, matched by SBA franchise code, and for most brands it is the only outcome data that exists publicly.
Brands enter the index this way when they don't register in the states we crawl. We add the filing when we obtain it — see methodology for how coverage is built and what each evidence level means.
The lender's view
SBA 7(a)/504 loan outcomes · compared with franchise loans of the same years
Banks have made 75 SBA-backed loans to Wing Zone franchisees since 2000. Of the 58 approved FY2000–2020 that have resolved, 27 charged off — where about 12 would be expected for franchise loans made in the same years. That is 2.3× the expected rate: these loans defaulted far more often than comparable franchise loans.
All-time, 28 of 60 resolved loans charged off (46.7%). That raw figure mixes every approval year since 2000 — loans made in 2006–08 failed at several times the rate of loans made in 2010–13 across all franchises — so it is shown as evidence, not as the score.
2.3×
27 of 58 resolved (FY2000–2020) vs ~12 expected
46.7%
28 of 60 resolved, every approval year
66.0%
charged-off $ ÷ approved $, defaulted loans
$572,222
what recent franchisees borrowed
63 mo
approval → charge-off, defaulted loans
7 vs 2
distinct banks still lending
Charge-off rate by loan approval year (%) · dashed line = all franchise loans that year
Loan performance by state
SOURCE: SBA 7(a)/504 FOIA LOAN DATA (DATA.SBA.GOV), FY1991–PRESENT · MATCHED TO WING ZONE BY SBA FRANCHISE NAME/CODE · RESOLVED = CHARGED-OFF + PAID-IN-FULL · EXPECTED = SAME-YEAR RATE ACROSS ALL SBA FRANCHISE LOANS, LOANS ≥ ~6 YEARS OLD
The owner's side of the deal
FDD × federal loan record
Who finances it
Fifth Third Bank
9.3% of this brand's loans
That lender charges off 27.6% of its resolved SBA loans to other franchise brands in the FOIA file, vs 14.8% nationally — a read on that lender's portfolio mix, not a finding about the bank.
Who buys it
89.7%
borrowers with no other franchise SBA loan on record
The rest already owned at least one other franchise. Across the corpus, brands bought mostly by repeat operators have charged off less often than brands sold mostly to newcomers (see methodology).
Does experience help here?
Not enough resolved loans to split
Computed from 75 SBA 7(a)/504 loans matched to Wing Zone by SBA franchise code in the SBA FOIA file. Debt service assumes level amortization at the average disclosed term and rate. Owner-level splits rely on borrower-name matching and may misclassify. A lender's rate excludes its loans to this brand, so it reads the lender, not the brand.
Labor record
US Dept. of Labor enforcement · franchisee-level · FY2005–present
Federal investigators have concluded 10 wage cases against operators of this system, recovering $28K in back wages for 133 workers, including 1 child-labor case. Some of these cases are recent, not ancient history. These cases name franchisee-owned locations, not the franchisor itself.
Concluded cases
10
Back wages owed
$28K
Employees affected
133
Since 2020
1
1 of these cases involved child-labor violations, covering 1 minors across the system's franchised locations.
Read this carefully. The employers in these cases are individual Wing Zone franchisees — separately owned businesses operating under the brand name — not Wing Zone 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. Cases are matched to the brand by trade name and may include misattributed employers. Source: DOL Wage and Hour Division concluded compliance actions, FY2005–present, most recent finding 2025.
Public records
Bankruptcy, closure & federal court records · coverage is selective · dockets are not scored
We have no verified public-record signals published for Wing Zone. This is not evidence that no events exist. Check PACER, the FDD's Item 3 (litigation) and Item 4 (bankruptcy), and recent news yourself.
6 questions to ask a Wing Zone franchisee
Built from this brand's own disclosures · take it to your validation calls
The franchisor will give you a list of owners to call. Most buyers ask whether they like it. These questions come from what Wing Zone has disclosed. Each one carries the number it came from, so you can check the answer against the record.
- 01
SBA loans to Wing Zone franchisees approved 2000–2020 defaulted far more often than franchise loans made in the same years: 27 charge-offs among 58 resolved loans, where about 12 would be expected (2.3×). Did you finance with an SBA loan, and how close did your first two years come to trouble?
This is the lender's view of how these loans ended, from public federal records matched by SBA franchise code — independent of anything the franchisor discloses — compared with franchise loans made in the same years. A charge-off is a loan outcome, not proof the business closed.
SBA 7(a)/504 loan record, seasoned loans FY2000–FY2020 · 2.3× of same-vintage franchise loans
- 02
We don't hold Wing Zone’s current FDD. Before anything else, ask for it and read Item 19: does it make an earnings claim, and which units built it? Then ask owners what their first 24 months actually looked like, month by month.
The franchisor must give you the FDD at least 14 days before you sign. Owners are the check on whatever Item 19 says, or doesn't.
FDD Item 19 · not on file here
- 03
How many months did it take to cover your own costs, and how much cash did you burn getting there?
Ramp-to-breakeven working capital is the most underestimated line in any franchise purchase, and the most common reason otherwise-good units fail.
Not disclosed in any FDD — ask an owner
- 04
What does the franchisor charge for that you didn't expect — required tech fees, mandatory remodels, approved-supplier pricing?
Required spending appears across Items 6, 8 and 11 rather than in one place, so buyers routinely miss the total.
FDD Items 6, 8, 11
- 05
If your agreement came up for renewal tomorrow at current terms, would you sign again?
The single most predictive question you can ask. A hesitation is the answer.
Ask every owner you speak to
- 06
Who else should I call — including someone who left?
The franchisor's list is curated by definition. Former franchisees are where the unflattering truth lives, and current owners usually know how to reach them.
Ask every owner you speak to
Want this as a checklist you can take to the calls?
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A broker is usually paid by the franchisor to place you. I'm paid only by you, never by a franchisor you're considering — and the job is pressure-testing Wing Zone’s numbers, including talking you out of a bad deal.
This page is what buyers see before they call you for validation. If the record above is wrong — or right in a way the numbers can't show — say so. Franchisors: send corrections with the page reference and we will review them against the filing and update or annotate the page. Corrections are checked against the filings; nothing you write is published with your name unless you agree to it.