B&G Food Enterprises—a southern United States Taco Bell franchisee with nearly 200 units—added another 28 Taco Bells to its portfolio with the acquisition from Louisiana-based Southeast Restaurant Group.
Southeast—led by Elie Khoury, who won a Franchise Times Dealmaker of the Year award in 2017—owns franchises in that portion of the United States. Namely, the group owns 50 Wendy’s restaurants in Texas, Florida and Alabama, as well as Mazza Mediterranean Cuisine and Marigny Brasserie and Bar.
B&G is a family owned and operated franchisee group started in 1982 when Brenda and Greg Hamer Sr. were awarded their first Taco Bell franchise in Morgan City, Louisiana. Now, the group owns Taco Bell, KFC and Long John Silver’s stores. B&G operates stores in Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi.
The 28 stores B&G bought are north of New Orleans, an area the group was already present in.
“It just fit in for our plan to be able to acquire those restaurants,” Greg Hamer Sr. said. “It’s going to allow us to do a little more development over time in that area. When you’re dealing with multiple franchisees in the same market, sometimes you have to do what you can and not where you should. When you’re the only one there, you can do what you should.”
B&G is in the midst of redeveloping some restaurants to make them more modern and developing new units. The group planned to open another eight restaurants this year, but with supply chain problems, Hamer doesn’t see them meeting that goal anymore.
“Projects that used to take 90 days are now taking seven to eight months,” he said.
Unbridled Capital provided its sell-side advisory services for the transaction, making this its fourth Taco Bell deal closed this year.