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Sun Capital brands target onsite growth

BOCA RATON Fla. Sun Capital Partners Inc., the private-equity firm that owns such restaurant brands as Bruegger’s Bakery Café, Friendly’s, Fazoli’s, Smokey Bones Bar & Fire Grill and Timothy’s World Coffee, said Thursday it plans to develop those fast-casual and dinnerhouse concepts for the onsite foodservice segment.

 

In a unique move to utilize the company’s scale of restaurant holdings, Sun said the brands will be offered in a bundled format and will be featured in future requests for proposals at airport, university and hospital accounts, according to Chris Cheek, vice president of franchise development at Bruegger’s.

 

 

 

Cheek said Sun Capital plans to work with franchisees, the chains themselves and master concessionaires in order to ensure that the brands debut in the most advantageous locations within the onsite arena. Previously, Sun Capital has helped its restaurants broker aggregate deals with beverage vendors, paper providers and shipping companies.

 

 

 

Cheek added that the push to enter the nontraditional market is a plan Sun Capital began working on this summer to help increase recognition of its portfolio brands with locations in high-trafficked areas including airports, which is one arena still growing despite the economic downturn. Bruegger’s was one of the first Sun Capital brands to starte focusing on nontraditional development.

 

 

 

“From our perspective, nontraditional locations or markets clearly haven’t been as impacted by the economy, even though some airports will tell you that travel is down,” Cheek said. “Also, putting our brands in these kinds of locations will create a lot of visibility, which from our standpoint is very strategic.”

 

 

 

Cheek said that Bruegger’s already operates four airport units and sales there are dramatically higher than at the brand’s traditional street locations.

 

 

 

“What we’ve seen at Bruegger’s is that the revenue performance per square foot exceeds those at our traditional locations by three to five times,” he said.

 

 

 

Sun Capital plans to look at markets where its restaurant brands already have a presence — like the northeast for Bruegger’s or Texas for Fazoli’s — and where concepts would operate in full-service or kiosk formats. Large and mid-size airports are the first targets.

 

 

 

“It is clear that a lot of these nontraditional entities are looking for new, fresh brands to deploy,” Cheek said. “Really, it’s about being more aware of and trying to please the traveling consumer or the student faculty with different choices. From that perspective, this gives us an opportunity to present brands that haven’t been in these locations before.”

 

 

 

Contact Elissa Elan at [email protected].

 

 

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