Back Yard Burgers has hired industry veteran Scott Shotter, left, as CEO, the parent private-equity firm Axum Capital Partners said Tuesday.
Shotter, who most recently was vice president of operations at Moe’s Southwest Grill, succeeds David McDougall, who left in May to return to Atlanta-based Franintell Inc.
During his nine years at Moe’s, which is a division of Atlanta-based Focus Brands, Shotter helped bring expanded that brand from 200 locations to more than 700. Prior to Moe’s, Shotter managed operations for other national and regional brands, including Starbucks, Sbarro, Popeye’s Louisiana Kitchen, Johnny Rockets and Burger King.
Nashville, Tenn.-based Back Yard Burgers was acquired in July 2017 by Axum from Pharos Capital Group LLC. The 51-unit company said it is looking at a new prototype.
“In addition to the new store prototype,” said Shotter in a statement, “we’re going to focus on the culinary and service experience Back Yard Burgers provides to our customers. We know that our franchise partners are going to be equally excited, and we look forward to rolling out what I believe is a well-planned growth strategy.”
Back Yard Burgers has 23 franchised restaurants and the remaining 28 are company-owned.
McDougall joined the brand in January 2013 when it had 85 units and was emerging from a 2012 bankruptcy filing.
Back Yard Burgers, founded in 1987, has locations in 11 states.
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