Inspire Brands Inc.

Private equity firm Rourke Capital bought a majority stake in 2016.

In 2019, Rourke-backed Inspire Brands acquired the rest, and Liotto stepped down as chairman to become an advisor, effectively ending his operational control.

Inspire Brands is one of those company names that it's like you're doing evil.

I know you are.

The name is too generic.

There is there is sin going on behind the scenes, like white, like like white collar crime, red tape sins.

Something about Inspire Brands feels like a severance company.

Yeah, 100%.

Mr. Northcutt a lot? I mean...

oh for sure absolutely that that was that was his idea to do that and uh and jay he's brand president right now working for inspire brands

was it hard oh wow

yeah

They own Aunt Anne's.

They own Carvel.

They have offshoot Inspire Brands, who we merged with.

They have Arby's, Buffalo Wild Wings.

Jersey Mike's opened its 2000th location in 2021 and continues to expand rapidly.

Jimmy John's, acquired by Inspire Brands in 2019, has integrated with a larger restaurant ecosystem that provides economies of scale Subway lacks.

Perhaps most telling is this statistic.

While Subway's US store count has declined by approximately 20% since 2015, the overall number of sandwich shops in America has increased.

...

it looks like we could go to, for dessert, Baskin-Robbins, but Inspire Brands already owns them too, so I w- they've beat me.

The bankers have already stolen my idea.

Just like the Yum! NATO maybe.

But don't count Buffalo Wild Wings out yet.

With the launch of its own to-go operations and the impending IPO of its parent company, Inspire Brands, Buffalo Wild Wings could start to claw back that market share.

Joining us to take a bite out of this rivalry is restaurant industry reporter Sam Oches.

Sam is the editor-in-chief of Nation's Restaurant News and the host of the food industry podcast Takeaway with Sam Oches.

It's just boring.

Yeah.

Well, the big news for B-Dubs or Buffalo Wild Wings is that its parent company, Inspire Brands, plans to go public later this year or early next.

What does that IPO mean for Buffalo Wild Wings' future do you think? Does that brighten the outlook a bit?

The shareholders approve the sale in February 2018.

Roark creates a new company called Inspire Brands and puts both Arby's, the fast food company known for its roast beef sandwiches, and Buffalo Wild Wings under its umbrella.

Neil Aronson of Roark Capital believes that Arby's is a good model for what Buffalo Wild Wings needs.

When Roark purchased Arby's in 2011, the sandwich chain was lagging behind other fast food companies, losing $350 million in a year.

He oversaw the development of new menu items, redesigned the kitchens, and worked with their marketing and social media teams to come up with a unified brand for the chain.

By 2017, Arby's was heralded as one of the most impressive comeback stories in the fast food industry, doing $3.7 billion in sales.

So Roark puts Brown in charge of Inspire Brands, overseeing both Arby's and Buffalo Wild Wings.

With Arby's running smoothly, Brown's focus is almost entirely on turning Buffalo Wild Wings around.

I mean, there is appetite in this segment.

I mean, look at, certainly from a private equity perspective, look at people like Raw Capital, who own Inspire Brands.

They've got a whole slew of different brands within their portfolio, from Dunkin' and Buffalo Wild Wings to Arby's and You know, that multi-brand model, Yum! Brands do it, Restaurant Brands International do it.

I mean, there is a market for that.

So they're going to say that Chipotle would be a splashy acquisition for Nickel.

More than that, it could create a new restaurant conglomerate following in the footsteps of Yum Brands, Restaurant Brands International, and Rourke's capital-backed Inspire Brands.

Multi-brand restaurant companies are more diverse, which can be more attractive to investors.

While Starbucks is still a much larger chain than Chipotle, the difference in their categories means that one's poor performance could be offset by growth of the other.