Wingstop signs agreement to open 60 restaurants in South Korea over a 10-year period

Wingstop Inc. said Monday it has signed an agreement for the development rights for South Korea and plans to open 60 restaurants over a 10-year period. The fast-casual wing restaurant chain said the plan sees the potential for 200 to 250 total restaurants in South Korea with the first expected to open in 2023. “Wingstop’s industry-leading digital business will reach the masses through use of its sophisticated tech stack — for both in-restaurant and off-premise occasions — playing to Korea’s highly-digitized economy and widespread adoption of food delivery,” the company said in a statement. Wingstop is expecting to open the first of 100 planned restaurants in Canada next month and has executed an expanded development agreement in Indonesia that will take the market to 120 restaurants from 50. The overall target is for 7,000-plus restaurants globally, more than 3,000 of which are expected to be outside the U.S. Shares were not yet active premarket, but have fallen 53% in the year to date, while the S&P 500 has fallen 15.6%.

Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.