With its first franchise investment in several years, Fransmart is not only putting money into skincare concept Glo30, but the firm’s founder and CEO also plans to open his own franchise studios.
With its acquisition of Senior Helpers in March, Waud Capital Partners becomes the third private equity firm to take over majority ownership of the brand with 380 locations in 44 states, Canada and Australia.
Tijuana Flats has a new owner, which the company announced after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in Florida.
New York City gourmet cookie chain Chip City closed a $7.5 million Series B investment from Danny Meyer’s Enlightened Hospitality Investments.The investment brings the total amount raised from EHI to $17.5 million. Chip City has more than 35 locations in eight states and ships nationwide via Goldbelly. Peter Phillips is the CEO and co-founded the brand with Teddy Gailas in 2017. The company plans to enter new markets this year, including Pennsylvania.
Related: Why Shake Shack’s Founder Bet on Chip City
DND Group agreed to acquire six Noodles & Company restaurants and open 10 new restaurants in the Portland, Oregon area. Spearheading the multi-unit deal is new Noodles franchisee Dara Dejbakhsh, CEO at DND Group, a longtime restaurant operator with more than 43 years of experience in restaurants and franchising. Founded in 2007, DND Group operates 56 restaurants across nine states. Its brand portfolio includes Dairy Queen, Zaxby’s, Taco John’s and Paris Baguette.
Platform company Craveworthy Brands acquired Sigri Indian BBQ and Untamed Brands, with concepts Taim Mediterranean Kitchen and Hot Chicken Takeover. The separate purchases, announced within a week of each other, come after Craveworthy bought cookie concept Dirty Dough earlier this year. Jagat Parikh founded Sigri Indian BBQ in 2015 and it has two locations, in Newark and North Brunswick, New Jersey. Former Chipotle and Noodles & Company executive Phil Petrilli formed Untamed Brands as an investment company in 2021, helping Taim grow to 13 units and Hot Chicken Takeover to seven. Craveworthy, founded in 2022 by Gregg Majewski, plans to rebrand Taim as Soom Soom, the Mediterranean concept Craveworthy partnered with C3 to franchise in 2023. Hot Chicken Takeover, meanwhile, will rebrand to Craveworthy’s existing hot chicken concept, The Budlong. Among Craveworthy’s other brands are Wing It On, Genghis Grill and Lucky Cat Poke Co. Financial terms of the deals were not disclosed.
7-Eleven Inc. completed its acquisition of 204 convenience stores in Texas, New Mexico and Oklahoma from Dallas-based Sunoco LP, which includes Stripes c-stores and Laredo Taco Company restaurants. Sunoco divested the stores for about $1 billion. With the closing, 7-Eleven now owns and operates all Stripes and Laredo Taco locations in the United States. Sunoco sold most of its company-operated retail outlets in 2018 to 7-Eleven, closing on the acquisition of about 1,030 Sunoco c-stores in 17 states, mainly in Texas, New York and Florida. Sunoco still has nearly 80 company-owned retail sites, including a presence on the New Jersey turnpike and 54 Aloha Petroleum sites in Hawaii.
Father-son franchisees Pat and Coleman Curry acquired an Urban Air Adventure Park in Waco, Texas, and purchased the adjacent land for future development. The Currys operate two other parks in Amarillo, Texas, and Knoxville, Tennessee. Urban Air is a portfolio brand of Unleashed Brands, which also owns The Little Gym, XP League, Class 101, Premier Martial Arts, Snapology and Sylvan Learning.
Krispy Kreme will enter the German market following a multi-unit franchise agreement with restaurant group ISH Kreme. The news follows Krispy Kreme’s launch in Paris in December. The German rollout is anticipated for early 2025. ISH Kreme operates 300 KFC and Pizza Hut restaurants across Germany. Krispy Kreme which isn’t actively franchising in the United States, has more than 14,000 locations in 35-plus countries.
Grease Monkey, the automotive aftermarket service and flagship brand of FullSpeed Automotive, transitioned ownership of seven stores in Colorado and Arizona to Oilex Operating. Spearheaded by president Ron Morrow Jr., Oilex Operating now owns 23 Grease Monkey locations. Along with Grease Monkey, FullSpeed Automotive also owns SpeeDee Oil Change & Auto Service and Kwik Kar, and has more than 900 franchised and company-owned locations. Grease Monkey has 500-plus auto centers in the United States, China, Colombia, Mexico and Saudi Arabia.
Minuteman Press, Spokane Valley and Berreth Thomas Printing merged businesses and are now co-owned by Troy Bise and Kent Berreth in Spokane Valley, Washington. In another merger, Jason Jacobus, owner of Minuteman Press Flemington, and Joe Mastrull, owner of Printech, have combined printing businesses and are now operating as Minuteman Press, Flemington, New Jersey. Minuteman Press has grown to nearly 1,000 locations worldwide.
ProColor Collision, which is owned by the Fix Network, opened its newest location in Baldwin Park in Los Angeles County with the acquisition and rebrand of a CCLA Motors Collision Center owned and operated by Ruben Jandres. As part of the acquisition, Jandres’ business has been renamed ProColor Collision Baldwin Park. Fix Network also owns Fix Auto Collision, Fix Auto Service, NOVUS Glass, Speedy Auto Service, Speedy Glass USA and SRP brands. Its brands have more than 2,000 locations.