A new sports bar and restaurant moved in just down the street from our house. At first, Gillian and I didn’t pay much attention to it. But over the past month, we noticed a lot of cars parked on the street in our neighborhood on Sundays – always when the NFL games were on TV and we determined people were flocking to the sports bar.

Just this past week, I subscribed to the Motley Fool Hidden Gems investment service. The service came with several special reports, one of which was a report titled “The ONE stock you don’t want to MISS in 2007”. Much to my amazement, the stock Tom Gardner and Bill Mann recommended was the new sports bar and restaurant in our neighborhood that everyone was flocking to.

So, I decided to dig into the company and found out some startling details. The company, Buffalo Wild Wings (NASDQ symbol BWLD), was founded in 1982, with a single bar near the Ohio State University. Over the next twelve years the company grew to 35 locations. But in 1994, the company faced serious financial issues and brought in former KPMG financial consultant Sally J. Smith as CFO to help turnaround the company. In July of 1996, Ms. Smith was promoted to CEO and President. Under Smith’s leadership, the company grew from 35 locations to 493 in December of 2007. The 500th unit will open in February.

Smith took the company public on November 21, 2003. Since the IPO, the share price has doubled, closing Friday at $22.90. Since 2000, revenue has grown from $53.2M to $321M (8-year annual growth rate of 29.3%) and net income has grown from $2.6M to $20.5M (8-year annual growth rate of 34.3%).

This is a remarkable story. And one more thing … of the seven executive corporate officers, five are women – Sally J. Smith, CEO; Mary J. Twinem, CFO; Kathleen M. Benning, Senior Vice President of Marketing and Brand Development; Judith a. Shoulak, Senior Vice President of Operations; and Linda G. Traylor, Senior Vice President of Human Resources. The girls have gone wild at Buffalo Wild Wings.

Gillian and I have decided to stop in our local Buffalo Wild Wings before the Dallas Mavericks – Denver Nuggets game today. In my research, I found out BWLD operates on the franchise model and has no presence in Northern California. Who knows, maybe our site survey will bear fruit and we will introduce a new brand to Sacramento?

Imagine, a women-led sports bar company and a woman-owned franchise. It’s worth a thought Gillian!

Pierre Cutler
The Sacramento Executive

Note: the photo of Sally Smith is courtesy of Forbes Magazine's website