Latest / Choppin’ It Up by Bloomberg Intelligence / FAT Brands’ Wiederhorn on Growth, Debt Paydown

Transcript

FAT Brands’ Wiederhorn on Growth, Debt Paydown · Choppin’ It Up by Bloomberg Intelligence

0:13
Speaker 1: Welcome to Chopping It Up. I'm your host, Mike Allen,
0:16
Speaker 1: the senior Restaurant and food service analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence.
0:19
Speaker 1: Our research and that of bi's five hundred analysts around
0:22
Speaker 1: the globe can be found exclusively on the Bloomberg terminal.
0:25
Speaker 1: If you enjoy the pod, I'd really love it if
0:27
Speaker 1: you could leave us a review on Apple or Spotify.
0:30
Speaker 1: Today we're joined by Andy Wiederhorn, the founder and chairman
0:33
Speaker 1: of Fat Brands. Fat Brands is ninety two percent franchised.
0:37
Speaker 1: It's a multi brand restaurant company with about twenty three
0:40
Speaker 1: hundred units across sixteen chains and trades on the NASDAQ
0:43
Speaker 1: with the ticker fat Fat. Welcome to the pod, Andy.
0:48
Speaker 2: Thanks for having me.
0:49
Speaker 1: I'd like to start with Twin Peaks. Many of your
0:52
Speaker 1: listeners probably know that the chain was spun out in
0:55
Speaker 1: an IPO earlier this year. What percentage of the company
0:58
Speaker 1: to Fat Brands retained and what were the proceeds used
1:01
Speaker 1: for it.
1:02
Speaker 3: Yeah, so we spun it out just at the beginning
1:04
Speaker 3: of the year, divid ending five percent of the company
1:07
Speaker 3: to the Fat shareholders and retaining a ninety five percent interest.
1:11
Speaker 3: But after management gets some options and bondholders got some options.
1:16
Speaker 2: It's probably in the low nineties at this time.
1:20
Speaker 3: We planned to do an equity offering at some point
1:22
Speaker 3: before the end of the year when the equity markets
1:25
Speaker 3: opened up a little bit for restaurants, and then we'll
1:28
Speaker 3: have new proceeds raised to build more restaurants, pay down debt.
1:32
Speaker 3: Those are our primary focuses today.
1:35
Speaker 1: I read that you found your next leader of that brand, so.
1:38
Speaker 3: We hired a dynamic new CEO named Kim Boima, who
1:42
Speaker 3: has a lot of experience thirty or forty years of
1:45
Speaker 3: experience at Texas Roadhouse, California Pizza Kitchen, and a number
1:49
Speaker 3: of other brands, a lot of bar experience from Texas Roadhouse,
1:52
Speaker 3: so he's a rock star. We're delighted to have him
1:55
Speaker 3: on board. He started maybe four weeks ago and is
2:00
Speaker 3: really settled into the position already and is focused on
2:03
Speaker 3: franchise profitability, corporate store restaurant level margin, and unit development.
2:09
Speaker 3: We have a very big pipeline of another one hundred
2:11
Speaker 3: stores for Twin to build out over the next few years,
2:15
Speaker 3: and we're really focused on getting those stores open.
2:17
Speaker 1: Great and Smoky Bones was included in the IPO. I
2:20
Speaker 1: think you expect to confert about half of the Smoky
2:22
Speaker 1: Bones restaurants to Twin Peaks. How much will the conversions
2:26
Speaker 1: cost compared to a new build, and what kind of
2:29
Speaker 1: auv uplift are you seeing.
2:31
Speaker 3: It's a really interesting story, this conversion of half the
2:34
Speaker 3: Smoky Bones. There are about sixty one Smoky Bones at
2:38
Speaker 3: the time of our acquisition eighteen months ago. About half
2:41
Speaker 3: of them are convertible into Twin Peaks. The other half isn't,
2:46
Speaker 3: either because it's a trade area that's no longer attractive
2:49
Speaker 3: to Twin Peaks, or it just doesn't qualify in the
2:51
Speaker 3: lease with a landlord because of the percentage of alcohol
2:54
Speaker 3: or some other restriction. We may have a Twin Peaks
2:57
Speaker 3: already nearby. So of those thirty ish stores that are
3:01
Speaker 3: going to convert, at least ten will be corporate, tann
3:03
Speaker 3: will be franchised, and the other ten are in between
3:06
Speaker 3: a corporate or franchise market. So we'll figure that out
3:08
Speaker 3: along the way. We're seeing almost a doubling in sales
3:12
Speaker 3: when we convert, like we converted the first store in Lakeland, Florida,
3:18
Speaker 3: back in the fall of twenty twenty four, I was
3:22
Speaker 3: doing three point six million as a Smoky Bones and
3:25
Speaker 3: it opened up doing eight million plus as a Twin
3:28
Speaker 3: Peaks will probably settle in right around seven or eight million.
3:30
Speaker 3: Then we opened brand in Florida as well, just in
3:34
Speaker 3: the spring here in February or the end of the winter,
3:36
Speaker 3: and we're seeing a doubling again. So we really think
3:40
Speaker 3: that Darden did a great job years ago picking the
3:42
Speaker 3: real estate for these locations when they were the original
3:44
Speaker 3: owner of Smoky Bones, and we're taking advantage of that now.
3:48
Speaker 3: We'll still end up with somewhere between twenty and twenty two,
3:53
Speaker 3: I think Smoky Bones that are freestanding, like we talked about,
3:57
Speaker 3: and we'll continue to operate those for the foreseeable future
4:00
Speaker 3: and probably grow that brand a little bit. It's about
4:02
Speaker 3: eight or nine that will close just because it's end
4:04
Speaker 3: of lease and it doesn't make sense to convert.
4:06
Speaker 1: Them, okay, and so in the near term the store
4:10
Speaker 1: conversions and closures are kind of weighing on your revenue
4:13
Speaker 1: and margins. When do you expect that headwind to become
4:16
Speaker 1: a tailwind?
4:18
Speaker 3: Good question. That should end this year. We should finish
4:21
Speaker 3: the full integration of Smoky Bones into the Twin Peaks team.
4:25
Speaker 3: We'll save the business three or four million dollars of
4:28
Speaker 3: operate expense. We also will get two or three more
4:34
Speaker 3: conversions done in the next nine months or so, so
4:37
Speaker 3: either beginning of next year or end of this year,
4:40
Speaker 3: and that will ramp up the revenue because they're doing
4:43
Speaker 3: twice as much volume as a Twin Peaks as the
4:45
Speaker 3: Smokey Bones, and when they're temporarily closed for conversion, you're
4:49
Speaker 3: not getting revenue from either brand, so that gives you
4:52
Speaker 3: a little bit of a lag. Franchisees are also starting
4:54
Speaker 3: to develop their stores and that's going to accelerate here
4:58
Speaker 3: in the coming quarter or two. So very positive about it,
5:01
Speaker 3: very happy about it. You can't happen fast enough. From
5:04
Speaker 3: a cost perspective, it's three or four million dollars to
5:08
Speaker 3: get one of these conversion into a Twin Peaks from
5:10
Speaker 3: the Smoky Bones. But if you build a Twin Peaks
5:14
Speaker 3: from the ground up, you're going to spend two million
5:15
Speaker 3: on the land and another five or five and a
5:18
Speaker 3: half million.
5:19
Speaker 2: To build the building.
5:21
Speaker 3: They may do a sale lease back and pull out
5:23
Speaker 3: some of that, but it's a significant investment. So here
5:26
Speaker 3: you're spending three or four million versus seven you know,
5:28
Speaker 3: seven or eight million, you know, give or take the
5:30
Speaker 3: real estate. So it's just another approach to make it interesting.
5:33
Speaker 3: And of course, well we do these conversions, we're getting
5:35
Speaker 3: a new lease with a lot of options and things
5:37
Speaker 3: like that, so it's a it's a pretty solid way
5:40
Speaker 3: to go.
5:40
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, it's a huge difference in auv it's
5:43
Speaker 1: a huge difference on investment costs. That's fantastic. How long
5:48
Speaker 1: do the conversions take?
5:50
Speaker 3: They take about nine months now ground up build of
5:52
Speaker 3: if you buy the land build a building, it's like
5:54
Speaker 3: two and a half years by the time you do
5:55
Speaker 3: in title months and get the restaurant built, so it
5:58
Speaker 3: significantly faster. It accelerates our new unit development. It's a
6:02
Speaker 3: good opportunity for you know, the franchise e to to
6:05
Speaker 3: move quicker on some of their development opportunities. They can
6:07
Speaker 3: get some financing for it, like equipment and things like that.
6:10
Speaker 3: So we think it'll you know, it'll really continue to
6:14
Speaker 3: lean into accelerating growth.
6:16
Speaker 1: Okay, And what's the alcohol mix and how our customers
6:19
Speaker 1: receiving the new bar menu?
6:21
Speaker 3: So we do about forty eight percent alcohol, which is
6:24
Speaker 3: really you know, really you know, cutting edge. It's a lot,
6:26
Speaker 3: it's a and it's a Barbelle system where you can
6:29
Speaker 3: have five dollars beers or thirty five dollars fancy tequila
6:34
Speaker 3: or whiskey, you know, whiskey shots or or on a
6:38
Speaker 3: big ice cube. So you know, there's a there's a
6:41
Speaker 3: big range there in the bar business, and there's there's
6:44
Speaker 3: we're trying to refine that a little bit and just
6:45
Speaker 3: make sure we're taking advantage of the margin with forty
6:47
Speaker 3: eight percent alcohol. On the menu side of things, there's
6:51
Speaker 3: also a little bit of streamlining going on. We've got
6:53
Speaker 3: a very good scratch kitchen menu and you can come
6:56
Speaker 3: into the restaurant and you can eat a steak or fish,
7:00
Speaker 3: or you can have bar food and you know, you
7:02
Speaker 3: pick whether you want an entree or all kinds of appetizers.
7:04
Speaker 3: And that's really made it a well rounded menu offering
7:08
Speaker 3: twenty five percent of the customers are female, and so
7:12
Speaker 3: you've got to have a well rounded menu to make
7:14
Speaker 3: sure you've got enough for everybody.
7:15
Speaker 2: Salad things like that.
7:17
Speaker 1: Of the other fifteen brands in the portfolio, which ones
7:19
Speaker 1: have the best growth profiles.
7:21
Speaker 3: Well, about seven of them are high growth. So that's Faberger,
7:25
Speaker 3: Johnny Rockets Round Table Pizza, Fizzoli's Twin Peaks we just
7:30
Speaker 3: spoke of, and then our cookies and ice cream brand,
7:33
Speaker 3: Marble Slab Creamery and Great American Cookie. Those were all
7:36
Speaker 3: with a thousand store pipeline across all of that brands.
7:39
Speaker 3: So in addition to the twenty three hundred restaurants open
7:42
Speaker 3: or under construction, there's another one thousand that have been
7:44
Speaker 3: paid for and signed up by the franchisees to build,
7:48
Speaker 3: and they'll build somewhere one hundred to one hundred and
7:51
Speaker 3: twenty a year going forward, and hopefully we can accelerate
7:54
Speaker 3: that even more.
7:55
Speaker 2: So.
7:56
Speaker 3: It's a very solid source of organic growth where we're
7:59
Speaker 3: not going out buying more brands for growth, but we're
8:02
Speaker 3: actually organically growing that at basically the zero cost.
8:06
Speaker 1: And you're exploring the refranchising of fifty seven Fasolis units,
8:10
Speaker 1: what kind of multiple do you expect to get on them,
8:12
Speaker 1: how much do you expect to raise and how much
8:14
Speaker 1: SG and A savings will you realize?
8:17
Speaker 2: Great question.
8:18
Speaker 3: Yeah, So when we convert the remaining company owned Fazoli
8:22
Speaker 3: stores to franchises will be one hundred percent franchised in
8:25
Speaker 3: that system. We expect it to be a single buyer,
8:28
Speaker 3: but you never know, you know, it could raise somewhere
8:33
Speaker 3: anywhere from fifteen to twenty five million dollars depending on
8:35
Speaker 3: you know, the transaction we end up negotiating, including the
8:39
Speaker 3: royalty percentage and things like that, but that'll all go
8:43
Speaker 3: to pay down debt. In the faciliti securitization, it'll say
8:46
Speaker 3: at least three million dollars of SG and A to FAT,
8:49
Speaker 3: So it makes us money that the amount of royalty
8:52
Speaker 3: will at least be equal to or exceed the earnings
8:57
Speaker 3: on those company owned stores. So it works, you know,
8:59
Speaker 3: plus we save the overhead. The multiple is somewhere in
9:02
Speaker 3: the four to six times rage.
9:04
Speaker 1: Okay, and I saw that you were looking into some
9:06
Speaker 1: duel or multiple branded store types. Can you talk a
9:11
Speaker 1: little bit about that and how those are doing.
9:14
Speaker 3: Yeah, we've been co branding for years, over a dozen years.
9:17
Speaker 3: We have Faburger and Buffaloes Express, which is a sort
9:20
Speaker 3: of a wing stop version of a chicken restaurant. So
9:23
Speaker 3: we have a number of those co branded, about one
9:25
Speaker 3: hundred of them where it's a Fatburger Buffaloes Express. And
9:29
Speaker 3: then we have some Johnny Rockets where they have hurricane
9:32
Speaker 3: wings in their restaurants. As well, and then we've done
9:36
Speaker 3: a try brand with Hotdog on a stick. We've done
9:38
Speaker 3: a try brand with round table pizza, Fatburger and one
9:42
Speaker 3: of the other brand's chicken or wings like Hurricane or Buffaloes,
9:47
Speaker 3: and they've all been very interesting because you're just giving
9:49
Speaker 3: a broader menu appeal to your customers when they can
9:52
Speaker 3: come in and do that. And we have finally well
9:56
Speaker 3: over one hundred of the Marble Slab ice Cream Great
10:00
Speaker 3: American Cookies units that are co branded, so you know,
10:02
Speaker 3: of course cookies and ice cream go together well, and
10:05
Speaker 3: if you're going to open one, you might as well
10:06
Speaker 3: open both and take advantage of that.
10:08
Speaker 1: Yeah, you took the words right out of my mouth.
10:10
Speaker 1: That seems like a natural pairing for the brands that
10:13
Speaker 1: you're co branding. Are you careful about the menu size,
10:17
Speaker 1: because you know, we were reading about the dining brand's
10:20
Speaker 1: attempts to merge Applebee's and ihop, and there's some talk
10:25
Speaker 1: about the two menus kind of being too too big
10:29
Speaker 1: and too too much for employees to learn up front.
10:33
Speaker 3: It's pretty easy for us on the co branding side
10:36
Speaker 3: because they're different brands, and so if you're doing the
10:39
Speaker 3: burger brands and you add wings, it's it's you know,
10:43
Speaker 3: it's wings and tenders things like that with.
10:45
Speaker 2: A bunch of sauces. It's nothing complicated.
10:48
Speaker 3: What's more complicated is if you're doing a fat burger
10:51
Speaker 3: a round table pizza, because the each have their own
10:53
Speaker 3: menus and then you you know, you add something else,
10:55
Speaker 3: whether it's dessert or you know, pretzel maker or something
10:58
Speaker 3: to it, which is pretty simple. So you really those
11:01
Speaker 3: big Try brands are really sort of two separate restaurants
11:04
Speaker 3: with one kitchen, but they're they're fully different menus. And
11:07
Speaker 3: then you know, clickies and ice cream is easy. That
11:09
Speaker 3: that is what it is. So it's not too difficult.
11:13
Speaker 3: Nothing crazy like two casual dining, you know, restaurant menus
11:16
Speaker 3: in one that that would.
11:17
Speaker 1: Be tough for sure. Let's talk about your franchise ease.
11:20
Speaker 1: How is access to capital and availability of quality real
11:23
Speaker 1: estate right now?
11:25
Speaker 3: Well, it's been you know, it's been a challenge for
11:28
Speaker 3: the last couple of years as you saw inflation raise
11:31
Speaker 3: the cost of building new restaurants significantly, and you know,
11:35
Speaker 3: financing became more expensive, so franchises were dragging their feet
11:38
Speaker 3: a little bit to build stores and where we optimistically
11:43
Speaker 3: had hopes of opening between one hundred and twenty one
11:44
Speaker 3: hundred and fifty units a year. The last couple of
11:47
Speaker 3: years we've been around one hundred. Still great new store openings,
11:50
Speaker 3: but that's all that is. Franchise is walking slower. Making sure.
11:56
Speaker 3: You know, this most recent tariff interruption sort of a
12:00
Speaker 3: non event, but definitely had franchises worried about our equipment
12:03
Speaker 3: price is going to go up yet again because there's
12:05
Speaker 3: all kinds of important equipment fryers, grills, things like that.
12:08
Speaker 3: Not so much the construction cost, but more like the
12:11
Speaker 3: important equipment. So we seem to have a calm sense
12:16
Speaker 3: of let's move forward again at full speed coming from
12:19
Speaker 3: the franchise system. So we're hearing them all step up
12:22
Speaker 3: with their development plans, come in for plan approval, things
12:25
Speaker 3: like that at a much faster pace. So I'm optimistic
12:28
Speaker 3: that will not only get there's one hundred stores open
12:32
Speaker 3: this year, but it'll lean into a higher number in
12:35
Speaker 3: the in the hopper for next year.
12:36
Speaker 1: It's good to hear the company reduced SG and A
12:39
Speaker 1: spending by five million a year. Where were those cuts made?
12:43
Speaker 3: You know, there's some at the senior level where you know,
12:46
Speaker 3: we haven't been as inquisitive, so we don't need quite
12:48
Speaker 3: as much finance team experience there. And then there's just
12:52
Speaker 3: some operating efficiencies on legal department things like that, where
12:55
Speaker 3: we've you know, we've sort of been able to automate
12:57
Speaker 3: some things and it's helped us reduce cost work.
13:00
Speaker 2: Anyone to look at that.
13:00
Speaker 3: I think that over time and the and the merger
13:03
Speaker 3: of Smoky Bones into Twin Peaks, and then fis always
13:06
Speaker 3: converting to refranchise stores, you know, that'll that'll be upwards
13:09
Speaker 3: of a.
13:09
Speaker 2: Ten million dollars savings on a consolidated basis.
13:12
Speaker 1: Interesting. Yeah, I think chat GPT may be helping everybody
13:15
Speaker 1: save money on legal expenses too.
13:17
Speaker 3: Man.
13:17
Speaker 1: You can you can ask it to create an fd
13:20
Speaker 1: D for you know, a restaurant concept, and it comes
13:24
Speaker 1: out with some pretty interesting stuff.
13:26
Speaker 2: Man, love that. Got to try that for sure.
13:30
Speaker 3: Liking at all.
13:33
Speaker 1: For sure. Speaking of lawyers, litigation expense jumped in the quarter.
13:38
Speaker 1: How much longer will that continue to be? Ahead wind
13:40
Speaker 1: to the P and L.
13:41
Speaker 3: We think that the majority of the litigation expense goes
13:46
Speaker 3: away this year.
13:49
Speaker 2: One way or the other.
13:50
Speaker 3: These cases will come to an end through settlement or
13:53
Speaker 3: other means, trials, whatever, but it'll all be over this year.
13:57
Speaker 1: Goodness utilization at the key production facility is kind of
14:02
Speaker 1: low right now, and that forty to forty five percent range.
14:06
Speaker 1: How long will it take to get to your near
14:08
Speaker 1: term goal of sixty to seventy percent and how do
14:11
Speaker 1: you plan to get there?
14:13
Speaker 3: Yeah, we have two programs that are in the works
14:16
Speaker 3: right now and rolling out right now. One is a
14:20
Speaker 3: test program of seven eleven where they're taking our cookies
14:24
Speaker 3: and selling them in the stores and there's an option
14:27
Speaker 3: to freshly bake them in the stores, and that has
14:31
Speaker 3: legs to it that will give us a lot of
14:34
Speaker 3: production and I think it'll go very well and the
14:37
Speaker 3: customers will really will like those freshly baked cookies in
14:39
Speaker 3: the stores with an oven that they put in and
14:43
Speaker 3: they use our fresh dough and bacon in the oven
14:45
Speaker 3: on the spot. It's called easy Bake and it's really
14:47
Speaker 3: a great program. And then we also have a number
14:51
Speaker 3: of other chains. Chuck E Cheese is one that we're
14:52
Speaker 3: rolling out now where they're taking the Great American cookies
14:55
Speaker 3: and selling them in the restaurants. And again that's a
14:57
Speaker 3: branded product, and you know, branded products just sell better
15:01
Speaker 3: in restaurants than unbranded products. So rather than every chain
15:05
Speaker 3: having their own cookie named you know whatever, it is,
15:09
Speaker 3: using a great American cookie, which is a recognized name
15:11
Speaker 3: that's been around for years, gives people lift and traction
15:15
Speaker 3: and helps move the product. And so you know, that's
15:17
Speaker 3: been our that's been our focus, and that will soak
15:21
Speaker 3: up quite a bit of excess capacity as it gets
15:25
Speaker 3: rolled out.
15:26
Speaker 1: That's really interesting. What kind of lift the chains typically say.
15:31
Speaker 3: Well, I mean it depends on your dessert mix to
15:34
Speaker 3: start with, but you know you can if you can
15:35
Speaker 3: get five percent of sales.
15:36
Speaker 2: You're happy.
15:37
Speaker 3: You're very happy right with you know that kind of target.
15:40
Speaker 3: So that's anywhere from two to five is what they're
15:42
Speaker 3: looking for. But it's also a good margin product, so
15:44
Speaker 3: I think it has a sort of a win win
15:46
Speaker 3: for everyone.
15:47
Speaker 1: And do you expect to see more vertical integration in
15:50
Speaker 1: the restaurant industry? You know some of the you know,
15:54
Speaker 1: there's been articles out about lemon squeezing robots, Chick fil
15:57
Speaker 1: A and you know, salad and has been implementing you know,
16:03
Speaker 1: commissaries for a while. Do you do you see more
16:06
Speaker 1: vertical integration in this inflationary environment?
16:09
Speaker 2: Well, you're always going to try to be efficient. You're
16:11
Speaker 2: always going to look at things that make you efficient.
16:13
Speaker 3: But this is still a hospitality space, and guests want
16:16
Speaker 3: to interact with someone and want to see their food
16:18
Speaker 3: being made, and you know, you start to worry when
16:21
Speaker 3: you don't see anything and it's all behind a wall
16:23
Speaker 3: and it gets passed out to you. And you know,
16:24
Speaker 3: in the age of you know, making things healthier here,
16:27
Speaker 3: I think everyone wants transparency and so I mean there's
16:30
Speaker 3: always a little bit of it, and you know, some
16:32
Speaker 3: of that can help and save the margin and all
16:34
Speaker 3: of that. But we're still in the hospitality business. We're
16:38
Speaker 3: still going to make burger shakes and fries and in
16:40
Speaker 3: front of people and pass them across the counter.
16:42
Speaker 2: Or deliver them to their table, and you know, that's
16:44
Speaker 2: part of the experience.
16:47
Speaker 1: What are you seeing from the US consumer across your
16:49
Speaker 1: brands because you're operating in you know, pretty much every
16:53
Speaker 1: segment of the market, you know, fast casual, criick service,
16:55
Speaker 1: casual dining, polished casual. So what are you seeing. Are
16:59
Speaker 1: you seeing any movement in terms of you know, spending
17:03
Speaker 1: by low income consumers, middle income consumers. What are you
17:06
Speaker 1: seeing from your brands.
17:08
Speaker 3: We're very happy that we're not in fine dining these
17:10
Speaker 3: days because find dining, you know, it's really tricky in
17:13
Speaker 3: terms of consumer confidence and how much they're going to spend.
17:15
Speaker 3: And then you have inflation creep where you know, to
17:18
Speaker 3: go out to dinner and find dining restaurant the price
17:20
Speaker 3: is almost doubled over the last five years, and you
17:24
Speaker 3: that sticker shock beyond belief right in At the lower
17:28
Speaker 3: tiered brands QSR, fast casual, et cetera. You've seen people
17:31
Speaker 3: trade down. They've traded to the left, So a fast
17:34
Speaker 3: casual might have gone to a QSR and so on.
17:37
Speaker 3: Casual dining may have traded a fast casual. We're seeing
17:40
Speaker 3: a resurgence in casual dining today. It's definitely positive. Wings brands,
17:46
Speaker 3: you know, polished casual as well coming back nicely. QSR,
17:51
Speaker 3: you know, has an issue if you can't really trade
17:52
Speaker 3: down for it. So there's all kinds of value propositions
17:55
Speaker 3: out there, and I think that at a high level
17:59
Speaker 3: in all of the categories, what operators need to be
18:03
Speaker 3: focused on is the guest experience. What I'm going to
18:06
Speaker 3: call the value proposition, and I don't mean the value
18:08
Speaker 3: meal where you get a burger for a dollar or
18:10
Speaker 3: three dollars or whatever. I mean, if you're going to
18:12
Speaker 3: charge somebody six dollars for a cup of coffee, it
18:15
Speaker 3: better be a great experience, right, Or you're going to
18:17
Speaker 3: charge them twenty dollars for a burger, shakes and fries,
18:20
Speaker 3: it better be a great experience and a great product
18:23
Speaker 3: and be seamless. And I think that's the value proposition
18:27
Speaker 3: today is people understand that there's inflation, there's been a
18:31
Speaker 3: price increase, but it's got to be seamless. You can't
18:34
Speaker 3: have a bad experience in charge a high price.
18:36
Speaker 1: So on the last episode, we had been talking a
18:39
Speaker 1: little bit about the resurgence of casual dining and some
18:41
Speaker 1: of the things that came up where you like, QSR
18:44
Speaker 1: was able to raise prices for about a year and
18:46
Speaker 1: a half while while casual dining chains were largely closed
18:49
Speaker 1: and the supply, demand and balance has kind of shifted
18:53
Speaker 1: to because there's been a lot of closures in full service,
18:57
Speaker 1: but quick service has gone on. And it's interesting too
19:02
Speaker 1: that there's a shift towards what you get for what
19:06
Speaker 1: you pay, and I guess part of that is people
19:08
Speaker 1: are still employed, right it's.
19:11
Speaker 3: Definitely the consumer demanding that they get what they pay for.
19:15
Speaker 3: Like I've never seen before, there's very much a focus
19:19
Speaker 3: on if I'm going to pay twenty dollars for a meal,
19:23
Speaker 3: it needs to be a great experience. I need to
19:25
Speaker 3: know what I'm getting and it's got to satisfy me.
19:28
Speaker 3: And conversely, if I'm going to pay five dollars for
19:30
Speaker 3: a meal, that's great, it's a great value, it works
19:33
Speaker 3: in my budget.
19:34
Speaker 2: It's qsr Fazolies is a perfect.
19:36
Speaker 3: Example of that, where we have a number of items
19:37
Speaker 3: that are five dollars or less and you can it'll
19:40
Speaker 3: fill you up and you'll get through it and you
19:42
Speaker 3: know you're not emptying your wallet out just to grab
19:44
Speaker 3: a quick bite. So I think you have to be
19:46
Speaker 3: prepared to address what the consumer wants. You know, when
19:49
Speaker 3: we sell a beer for five dollars at Twin Peaks,
19:52
Speaker 3: you know that goes along ways. You know, somebody on
19:54
Speaker 3: a budget wants to have frequency and come in often,
19:57
Speaker 3: which we have a very very high ninety six seventy
20:00
Speaker 3: seven percent black box intelligence intend to return from the
20:04
Speaker 3: guest survey. That's saying, hey, I had a great experience,
20:06
Speaker 3: it was a great value. I want to come back
20:08
Speaker 3: and if they can come back, and the peers are
20:10
Speaker 3: five dollars, they're going to come back a lot, right,
20:12
Speaker 3: And it's we probably do cold beer better than anyone anywhere,
20:15
Speaker 3: twenty nine degree cold beer, and so it's really you know,
20:18
Speaker 3: it's an experience. It's well priced, and you can watch
20:20
Speaker 3: any kind of sports game that's on. We have it,
20:23
Speaker 3: and I think that is our competitive advantage in that
20:27
Speaker 3: end of the spectrum where you can add value and
20:29
Speaker 3: still be in a polished environment.
20:31
Speaker 1: Yeah, everyday, value is so important in this environment, no
20:34
Speaker 1: matter what the segment you're operating in. Improving operations has
20:37
Speaker 1: been a hot topic for the companies I cover. Is
20:40
Speaker 1: this a point of focus for any of that brands
20:42
Speaker 1: chains in twenty five or twenty six.
20:44
Speaker 2: It absolutely is.
20:45
Speaker 3: I mean, certainly at our company on store units, looking
20:48
Speaker 3: at the restaurant level margin, looking at efficiency is critical.
20:52
Speaker 3: Making sure that our pricing is in line with our
20:56
Speaker 3: peers and that we're competitive, but we're not leaving margin
20:59
Speaker 3: on the floor. I think that's something that you know,
21:00
Speaker 3: will continue to focus on, particularly on the alcohol side
21:04
Speaker 3: of things, where you know you've got to just be
21:06
Speaker 3: careful because there's margin you you can leave on the
21:09
Speaker 3: table if you're not careful.
21:11
Speaker 1: Cool And how did fat brands come to be.
21:14
Speaker 3: Well, we started with our first acquisition over twenty years
21:17
Speaker 3: ago with the Faberger brand when it had forty restaurants
21:20
Speaker 3: in California and Nevada, half franchised, half company on stores.
21:24
Speaker 3: And we grew that brand, sailed through the recession in
21:27
Speaker 3: two thousand and seven eight nine, which was which was
21:29
Speaker 3: very difficult, and then bought the Buffalo's Cafe brand in
21:33
Speaker 3: twenty eleven and kept going and growing and co branding.
21:37
Speaker 3: Did a lot of international franchise sales during those years,
21:40
Speaker 3: big sales in the Middle East and Asia, things like that.
21:43
Speaker 3: And then we bought Ponderosa, Bonanza in the steakhouse chains
21:48
Speaker 3: All you can Eat Baffetes in twenty seventeen as part
21:51
Speaker 3: of our IPO on the Nasdaq, and at that point,
21:55
Speaker 3: you know, we've been acquiring brands ever since. Now we
21:58
Speaker 3: have a total of eighteen brands actually, and we've continued
22:03
Speaker 3: to add them to.
22:03
Speaker 2: The portfolio when it makes sense.
22:05
Speaker 3: We were on an acquisition spree in twenty twenty and
22:09
Speaker 3: twenty twenty one during COVID when there was a lot
22:11
Speaker 3: of stuff for sale and not a lot of buyers,
22:13
Speaker 3: so we opportunistically were at the table making transactions work
22:18
Speaker 3: out for us where we could, and the efficiencies of
22:21
Speaker 3: integrating the back office like one accounting department, one legal department,
22:25
Speaker 3: marketing by brand, but not different departments things like that,
22:28
Speaker 3: where there were significant operational efficiencies. And Twin Peaks and
22:32
Speaker 3: Smoky Bones is a little different because it's such a
22:34
Speaker 3: heavy alcohol business forty eight percent alcohol on the Twin
22:37
Speaker 3: Peaks side, that we've left that business independent and tried
22:41
Speaker 3: to there's some shared services in some back office things
22:45
Speaker 3: that we can do, but it's really on its own
22:47
Speaker 3: today and it's positioned to be a separate public company,
22:49
Speaker 3: raised its own capital and grow and we think it's
22:53
Speaker 3: just a lightning.
22:54
Speaker 2: Rod for growth in the Polish casual a dying space.
22:57
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's an interesting story, man, I look forward to
23:00
Speaker 1: continuing to follow it. Thanks for doing this, Andy.
23:04
Speaker 2: Great, thanks for having me. Great to talk to.
23:05
Speaker 1: You, sure thing, and I want to thank the audience
23:07
Speaker 1: for tuning in. If you'd like to learn more about
23:10
Speaker 1: fat Brands and you don't have a Bloomberg terminal, visit
23:12
Speaker 1: fat brands dot com. If you liked our discussion, please
23:15
Speaker 1: share it with your friends and colleagues. Check back soon.
23:18
Speaker 1: My colleague Daniellis, Sir Torri, will be interviewing me about
23:21
Speaker 1: our second half outlook for the restaurant and food service
23:24
Speaker 1: industries