Buffalo Wild Wings' international expansion marched on this week with the opening of the company's first restaurant in the Philippines.

The Golden Valley-based restaurant chain has been since 2013 wading into markets beyond the United States and Canada, where it has 1,070 outlets.

Mexico now has five Wild Wings restaurants, with the most recent one opening in December in Ciudad Juarez. The company plans to open outlets this spring in Dubai and Saudi Arabia.

The inaugural Philippines Wild Wings opened Thursday in the Manila metro area, and several other locations are planned for the country. "It's a long time coming, but we are happy about it," said Mary Twinem, Buffalo Wild Wings chief financial officer.

"What we found in Mexico -- and we think this applies to other countries -- is that it takes a while to get that first location open. There is just a lot of learning that happens. And then the second one and third ones come much quicker."

We'll have an interview with Twinem in the Viewpoint column of the Sunday business section this weekend.