Several months after news first broke in June that FAT Brands was seeking an IPO for its sports bar concept Twin Peaks, FAT Brands confirmed that Twin Peaks will be filing an IPO in the near future—as soon as the second or third quarter of 2024, the FAT Burger parent company’s chairman and former CEO Andy Wiederhorn said during its Q3 earnings call on Oct. 26. Wiederhorn clarified that they were not committing to that timeframe because they could end up waiting longer until the market normalizes more.
Either way, Wiederhorn said that FAT Brands sees its polished casual segment — which now includes both Twin Peaks and the recently acquired Smokey Bones — as a particular focus. The company also plans to convert 30-40 Smokey Bones locations into Twin Peaks restaurants moving forward, while simultaneously opening new Smokey Bones stores in fresh markets through franchising.
“The acquisition marks our expansion into the barbecue segment and bolsters our presence in polished casual dining, which until now has been represented exclusively by our Twin Peaks,” Wiederhorn said during Thursday’s earnings call, adding that Twin Peaks and Smokey Bones together have the highest AUVs in the growing FAT Brands portfolio. “We are particularly focused on the growth of our polished casual segment…Twin Peaks stores are highly profitable restaurants with an elevated food and beverage program that far surpasses anything else in the category.”
Throughout 2020 and 2021, FAT Brands garnered attention for its acquisition shopping spree, which began with Johnny Rockets in Sept. 2020, and included Global Franchise Group, Twin Peaks, Fazoli’s and Native Grill & Wings in 2021. After a brief hiatus, FAT Brands picked up Smokey Bones last month, making it the 18th restaurant counted under the FAT Brands umbrella. But it seems now that the company is still on the lookout for more brands to its to its expansive portfolio. Wiederhorn specifically stated that FAT Brands was on the lookout for sandwich, salad, and coffee brands to add to its portfolio.
After Subway’s sale to Roark, it makes sense that FAT Brands would want to compete in the sandwich category. Additionally, both the salad/healthful category and coffee segment are two of the fastest growing areas of the foodservice industry today.
“As we continue to assess potential targets for acquisition, our focus remains on identifying strategic and EBITDA-accretive opportunities with brands that have demonstrated long term sustainability and robust profitability,” Wiederhorn said. “They also must be scalable and synergistic with our existing platform, including leveraging our existing manufacturing capacity when possible.”
FAT Brands announced same-store sales growth of 1.3% for the third quarter, with total revenue growth of 6.0% to $109.4 million compared to $103.2 million in the third quarter of 2022. The company had an income net loss of $24.7 million, or $1.59 per diluted share, compared to $23.4 million, or $1.52 per diluted share, in the fiscal third quarter of 2022.
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