FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Long Island `Teenpreneur’ Captures Attention of Franchise Industry With Award-Winning Business Plan to Open a Wing Zone

Palm Springs , Ca – Douglas Quimby, Jr., a high-school senior from Huntington, NY, walked away from the International Franchise Association’s recent convention in Palm Springs, CA with a $5,000 scholarship, generous financial incentives from Wing Zone, and considerable respect from significant players in the $1.53 trillion franchise industry. Quimby was the winner of the 2005 National Franchising Competition sponsored by the IFA’s educational foundation, DECA, and 7-Eleven for producing the best paper on “franchising and entrepreneurship” at DECA’s 2005 International Career Development Conference in Anaheim, CA in April, 2005.

The scholarship and award, jointly sponsored by the IFA’s educational foundation, DECA, the premier student organization preparing young people for making careers in marketing, management, and entrepreneurship, and 7-Eleven, was awarded to Quimby for his original business plan detailing how he would acquire and develop the first Wing Zone franchise in Suffolk County, on NY's Long Island. In addition to the $5,000 scholarship from the IFA, Wing Zone supplemented that amount with $1,000 to cover Quimby’s travel expenses to the convention, as well as offering him $1,000 per year for the next four years for his college education, as long as he maintains a 3.0 GPA and an entrepreneurial focus in his studies.

Quimby, who is a senior at Walt Whitman High School in Huntington, NY, and will attend Johnson & Wales University next Fall, accepted the scholarship at the IFA convention February 28, 2006 in Palm Springs, CA, where nearly 3,000 attendees from franchise organizations around the world were in attendance. Quimby’s humble acceptance speech at the convention earned him a standing ovation and admiration for his drive to succeed at such a young age.

“We are excited to recognize and award scholarships to budding entrepreneurs like Doug Quimby and other DECA students,” said Steve Greenbaum, chairman of the IFA Educational Foundation and CEO of PostNet International Franchise Corp. “Franchising offers great opportunities for young people who are interested in starting their own business, working for a franchise company, or starting their own company – the sky’s the limit.”

The scholarship is the first presented in a new program designed to motivate outstanding high school and college students to pursue franchising and entrepreneurship studies. The scholarship program is named in honor of retired IFA President Don DeBolt, and is being carried out in cooperation with the DECA and Delta Epsilon Chi (DEX), an international association of nearly 200,000 high school and college marketing students and their advisors.

The 17-year old’s winning paper was a detailed plan for the acquisition and development of a Wing Zone franchise in South Huntington, Long Island. When Stan Friedman, executive vice president of Wing Zone, one of the nation’s fastest-growing takeout & delivery franchise concepts, read Quimbly’s assembly plan, he was blown away by the 17-year-old’s research and attention to detail.

“Doug’s business plan was nearly dead on correct with the Wing Zone mission,” Friedman said.“We see a bright future for Doug.”He is a very intelligent young man on a great path in business.It wouldn’t surprise me to hear Doug Quimby’s name for a long time to come.”

In fact, executives of Wing Zone, started in 1991 by two University of Florida students/fraternity brothers, Matt Friedman (no relation to Stan) and Adam Scott, thought so highly of Quimby’s professionally-written business plan that the company paid for his travel expenses to the IFA Annual Convention to accept his scholarship and will provide an additional scholarship of $1,000.00 per year toward his college tuition, so long as he maintains a 3.0 GPA and an academic focus on business and entrepreneurship studies.

“Matt and Adam started cooking wings for their college community because they loved them and no restaurants were serving them.Back then, nobody had any idea that their passion for wings would evolve into a successful franchise concept that not only satisfies the appetites of customers, but feeds the desires of young, ambitious entrepreneurs seeking a way to own their own business,” Stan Friedman said.“Doug exemplifies the spirit of that mission.Investing in his future provides us the opportunity to inspire other students to follow in Matt and Adam's path.

Quimby picked Wing Zone as his business of choice for several reasons, among them his penchant for its staple menu item – chicken wings.

“I love Buffalo chicken wings,” Quimby said.“I was searching the IFA’s website, trying to find the ideal franchise to write a business plan for, and Wing Zone seemed like the perfect fit for Huntington, especially since the only real option for late night food is Taco Bell, and no one wants just one option.”

Winning the scholarships and impressing his parents have been emotionally gratifying for Quimby.

“There is no greater feeling in my life than making my parents proud,” he said.“My father is just so proud of what I am doing and the direction I am planning to go in business.And, when he had the opportunity to speak with Mr. Friedman about how Wing Zone felt about my paper and me as an entrepreneur, his face just lit up.This whole process has been amazing and somewhat surreal.”

About Wing Zone

Wing Zone is one of the nation’s fastest-growing take-out/delivery franchise concepts specializing in 25 flavors Buffalo chicken wings, with more than 80 locations open and dozens more in development. Wing Zone was founded in 1991 at the University of Florida by Matt Friedman and Adam Scott, who cooked wings with homemade sauces in their fraternity house kitchen and delivered them to fellow college students. After expanding with several Wing Zone locations, Scott and Friedman began franchising Wing Zone in 1999.For more information, visit www.wingzone.com.

About IFA

IFA, founded in 1960, serves as the “Voice of Franchising” with a membership that includes more than 1,000 franchise parent companies, 8,000 franchisees who operate the establishments and 400 firms that supply goods and services to the sector.