Fosters Freeze International LLC, an investment group led by former multi-unit franchisee Kishan Patel, has acquired the Fosters Freeze franchise system, company officials said Friday.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The 82-unit quick-service chain, known for its soft-serve ice cream and a menu of burgers, fries and shakes, is fully franchised. Fosters Freeze LLC, an investor group led by shareholder and president Randy Fritchie, sold the chain.
Patel is a former partner in West Palm Beach, Fla.-based Apple Investors Group LLC, a franchise operator of Applebee’s, IHOP and Burger King restaurants. He said he exited that investment to search for a Southern California brand to grow.
“I wanted something closer to home,” Patel said.
Fosters Freeze offered an opportunity as a legacy brand in need of an update, he said.
“It’s older and it needs a nice refresh. And with everything we’ve learned about larger brand systems, we know what they need,” Patel said.
As a managing member of Fosters Freeze International LLC, based in Pomona, Calif., Patel said he plans to hire a management team to work on growing the Fosters Freeze brand.
The group plans to spend about six months to a year studying the Fosters Freeze system to fully understand what it needs to relaunch growth as a franchise brand, including possibly taking the brand overseas.
Fosters Freeze was founded in 1946 by George Foster in Inglewood, Calif., as a soft-serve ice cream and dessert concept. Later, Fosters Freeze added burgers, fries, and chicken and fish sandwiches, as well as parfaits, sundaes, smoothies, shakes and mixed-flavor cones known as Twisters.
The brand claims to be California’s first fast-food chain with restaurants. Carl’s Jr. began as a hot dog cart in 1941, while the restaurant in San Bernardino that became McDonald’s opened in 1948.
In its heyday in the late 1970s and early 1980s, Fosters Freeze had around 275 locations, Patel said.
According to the Fosters Freeze website, a franchise unit in Hawthorne, Calif., is said to be the hamburger joint where singer Dennis Wilson spotted a girl in a Thunderbird, a reference in the Beach Boys song “Fun, Fun, Fun.”
In 1994, El Pollo Loco signed a master franchise contract with Fosters Freeze, which at one point had outlets in many of its restaurants. That contract ended in 2014, and Fosters Freeze is no longer located in El Pollo Loco units.
Brokerage firm National Franchise Sales, based in Newport Beach, Calif., facilitated the acquisition by Fosters Freeze International.
Patel remains on the hunt for more brands to grow.
Contact Lisa Jennings at [email protected].
Follow her on Twitter: @livetodineout