One private equity firm controls more than a dozen of the biggest restaurant chains
Gerardo Mora/Getty Images for Subway
- Restaurant chains from Subway to Arby's to Buffalo Wild Wings have a common owner.
- Roark Capital Group has been buying up restaurant chains for nearly 25 years.
- It's one example of how consumer brands have become consolidated under a handful of owners.
There's a good chance that just one private equity firm owns one of your favorite restaurant chains.
Over the last quarter-century, Roark Capital Group has bought up nearly 20 restaurant brands in the US. Its latest acquisition happened last year when it acquired Subway, which operates the most stores out of any restaurant chain in the US.
But Roark's holdings include other restaurants that you've probably visited before:
Tyler Le/BI
Other notable Roark restaurant holdings include coffee chain Dunkin', Arby's, Jimmy John's, Buffalo Wild Wings, and suburban mall favorites Cinnabon and Auntie Anne's.
The private equity firm also has investments in The Cheesecake Factory, which is publicly traded, as well as midwestern burger chain Culver's. It also owns the bakery chain Nothing Bundt Cakes and some franchises of Seattle's Best, that coffee chain you used to find at Border's Books.
Founded in 2001, Atlanta-based Roark has $38 billion in assets under management, according to its website.
The firm "was named after Howard Roark, the protagonist in Ayn Rand's book The Fountainhead," the firm's website reads. Rand's books have a following among libertarians and other advocates of deregulation and individual enterprise.
But the website adds: "As a firm of diverse viewpoints, it does not signify adherence to any particular political philosophy."
While Roark owns a lot of restaurant brands, it's hardly the only private equity player in the industry.
Hooters was acquired by TriArtisan Capital Advisors and Nord Bay Capital in 2019, for instance. TriArtisan also owns TGI Fridays and P.F. Chang's, according to its website.
Restaurants aren't the only consumer brands that have become more consolidated under a handful of owners. A handful of multinational corporations, from Nestle to Mars, own hundreds of food and personal care brands.