Erica and Judd Wishnow founded Southpaw in 2010.
Quick service restaurant franchise operator Southpaw acquired 38 existing Taco Bell stores and one KFC unit in the Atlanta area, bringing the franchisee’s total number of Taco Bells to 115.
Southpaw also owns 65 Dunkin’ units and reports annual sales of around $300 million. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed. In 2021, Southpaw bought 34 Taco Bell restaurants in Delaware, Virginia and Maryland from the same seller. Co-CEO Judd Wishnow founded the company with his now-wife Erica in 2010 when the pair acquired 11 Dunkin’ stores in New York.
“While Dunkin’ was our first, Taco Bell has definitely become meaningfully larger now at this point,” he said.
The Wishnows wanted to buy up all the seller’s stores during the initial acquisition in 2021, but it didn’t work out. “The brand wasn’t going to allow that,” Judd Wishnow said.
“We had been sort of following the performance” of the Atlanta stores, Wishnow said. The existing franchisee was looking to retire and wanted to sell his remaining franchises.
“These stores have a great team, great locations, great market, but I think they needed a little bit of TLC,” he said. “They needed some fresh blood, some new leadership. I think the seller, who was an amazing franchisee for decades, would say, ‘I was ready to get out two years ago. So, I’m sort of tired of being in this situation.’ He wanted new blood in there. He wanted someone to come in and help take these stores to the next level. That’s what we do.”
Southpaw values Taco Bell’s “best in class” marketing skills and the lack of national competitors, he said.
There are other notable taco chains, like Del Taco and Taco John’s, but neither match up in sales or store count to Taco Bell. At the end of 2022, Taco Bell had 7,513 units open in the United States, according to its Item 20.
The initial cost to open a new traditional Taco Bell store ranges from $1.4 million to $3.4 million. An in-line or end-cap store ranges from $575,600 to $1.4 million, and to begin operating an existing unit, the range is $175,000 to $1.8 million, according to the brand’s most recent franchise disclosure document.
Other franchises don’t have the coast-to-coast visibility like Taco Bell, Wishnow said. “Even if they were, I would put Taco Bell’s innovation and marketing strength against anyone,” he said.
“If someone were to ask me, ‘What will keep you up at night?’ My answer would be like, the truth is it’s hard for me to imagine things getting that much better with Taco Bell,” he said. “Is there only downside from here? And the answer is no, I don’t think so.”
Going forward, the Wishnows want to expand outside of either coast, like the Midwest or Southeast. “Even though we live in the Northeast, and we love the Northeast, there are other markets out there that are more business friendly,” he said.
Southpaw also plans to expand via new development.
“We’re looking at new sites that we think the stores can be monsters, but it takes a little time,” Wishnow said.