The Cheesecake Factory Inc. said Wednesday it has closed on its acquisitions of Fox Restaurant Concepts and plans to move the operations of the North Italia casual-dining brand to its California headquarters.
The Calabasas Hills, Calif.-based Cheesecake Factory, which three years ago invested $88 million in Fox Restaurant’s casual-dining North Italia and fast-casual Flower Child, said the $353 million acquisition, announced in July, included $308 million at closing, with $12 million earmarked for customary post-closing adjustments, and an additional $45 million due over the next four years.
“The FRC transaction also includes an earn-out provision based on the financial performance of the FRC brands outside of North Italia and Flower Child,” the company said.
Phoenix-based FRC operates 47 restaurants across eight states and the District of Columbia, including such brands as The Arrogant Butcher, Blanco, Culinary Dropout, Dough Bird, The Greene House, The Henry, Olive & Ivy and Zinburger.
Cheesecake said Fox Restaurant Concepts will operate as an independent subsidiary and continue to be led by founder Sam Fox from FRC’s headquarters in Phoenix.
The Cheesecake Factory said it will move operations for North Italia, which has 21 locations in 10 states and Washington, D.C., to its Calabasas Hills headquarters “to help scale the concept nationally.”
With the Fox Restaurants acquisition, The Cheesecake Factory now owns 288 restaurants in the United States and Canada under brands that include Cheesecake Factory, Grand Lux Café, RockSugar Southeast Asian Kitchen and the fast-casual Social Monk Asian Kitchen, which opened earlier this year in Thousand Oaks, Calif.
The company also has 23 Cheesecake Factory restaurants internationally that operate under licensing agreements and a bakery division with two locations.
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