PLANO Texas A group of restaurant veterans led by Mark Bromberg, president and chief executive of management and consulting firm Apex Restaurant Group and the former chairman of Metromedia Restaurant Group, have formed a private-equity fund specifically to acquire or invest in midsized regional restaurant chains, the new company said this week.
In addition to Bromberg, the top management of Dallas-based Maven Capital Fund includes John Todd and Mark Scoular, in partnership with additional investors. Neither the size of the fund, nor its investment capacity, was revealed. Maven Capital did say it is targeting restaurant concepts that record average unit volumes of $750,000 to $3 million.
Todd most recently was the chief operating officer at sandwich chain franchisor Quiznos Sub, where Bromberg has served as a director. Todd has held various roles at Pizza Hut and Boston Chicken, as well as at Plano-based Metromedia Restaurant Group, which operates or franchises the Bennigan’s, Steak & Ale, and Ponderosa and Bonanza steakhouse chains.
Scoular currently is the chief operating officer at Apex Restaurant Group, which has worked with Quiznos, Blue Chalk Cafe, The Sirloin Saloon and the Ground Round chains, as well as Metromedia’s brands. Scoular also was a former executive vice president at Metromedia.
“What differentiates us from other private-equity funds is the fact that we are staffed, managed and funded entirely by senior executives from within the restaurant industry,” Bromberg said in a statement. “We’re focused exclusively on the foodservice industry because we’ve all spent our careers growing and repositioning some of America’s best-known chains.”
Bromberg was the founder of East Side Mario's, the Italian casual-dining chain that was sold to PepsiCo Foodservice, parent at the time of Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and KFC. He also has served as president of an online purchasing concern for foodservice operators.