FAT Brands, the parent company behind the cult fast casual burger chain Fatburger and chicken wing chain Buffalo’s Café, has announced that it plans to launch an IPO which plans to raise $20 million. In a Thursday interview with CNBC, Fatburger CEO Andy Wiederhon did note that while the IPO has not been formally qualified by the SEC, it will be soon.
Those familiar with IPOs should realize that $20 million is an incredibly low amount for a normal IPO to raise. Instead, FAT Brands will be making a Regulation A+ offering, which is often described as a miniature IPO. This means lower SEC fees and reporting requirements. Furthermore, FAT Brands has stated that anyone can invest a minimum of $500.
In this early stage where the IPO has not been fully qualified, it is far too soon to make a decisive judgment on Fatburger’s potential, especially without a firm look at its finances. But there are certain things about the company and the fast casual industry in general which can help investors reach a preliminary decision.
An Ability to Expand
The FAT Brand IPO may be small, but its ambitions are clearly big. Fatburger was founded in 1952 in Los Angeles, and for most of its history was content to stay in California and offer massive hamburgers. But today, Fatburger has expanded to 19 states as well as countries such as China, India, and Canada. The FAT Brand website declares that “we will have more than 300 restaurants open or under construction in more than 20 countries, generating more than $300m in sales, and a growth pipeline of another 300 restaurants to be built.” And this is on top of FAT’s stated intention to purchase additional brands, though no specific acquisition targets have been listed yet.
Perhaps what is most interesting about Fatburger’s expansion is where it is not expanding. Fatburger’s presence in the United States is limited purely to a few states mostly located in the west. And while Fatburger apparently has plans to expand into Brazil, Vietnam, and Algeria, it appears to have no plans to expand into continental Europe outside of Russia and the Scandinavian countries.
Wiederhon apparently is intent on giving Fatburger its niche as a uniquely American burger influence overseas, as he declared in 2014 that “consumers all over the world love American brands, especially burgers, shakes and fries.” The strategy appears to be working, as FAT Brand stated that between 2012 and 2016 it achieved compound annual growth rates in net revenue, net income, and EBITDA of 9.9%, 40.0%, and 35.3% respectively.
FAT Brand appears to have seized a unique strategy of overseas and rapid expansion and thus has grown magnificently over the past few years. There are risks in expanding in less stable countries such as Egypt, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia. But for now, it appears to have done very well for itself in the past few years.
Breaking the Fast Casual Problem
The success of FAT Brands is all the more impressive when investors consider how other fast casual chains are struggling. As Bloomberg noted in June, fast casual sales growth is slowing from 10 to 11 percent in the past five years to 6 to 7 percent in 2017. As fast casual chains offer a highly elastic product and places like McDonald’s (NYSE:MCD) are starting to improve their food quality, diners are choosing to head to cheaper places.
Given how fast casual restaurants are now under siege from the cheaper restaurants that they were once beating, FAT’s decision to branch out to countries where the competition for a good, American-style burger is weaker looks to be a smart decision. Meanwhile in the United States, Fatburger has also embraced delivery, another trend hurting most fast casual restaurants. Fatburger is currently partnered with UberEats, Grubhub, and Postmates to bring burgers to consumers’ doorsteps.
Fast casual restaurants have to adapt to changing consumer trends and no longer assume that offering quality is good enough. But FAT Brands has already begun adapting and has stolen a march over its competitors, another good sign for this company’s long-term prospects.
An Initial Good Feeling
FAT Brands has been able to avoid the plights of other fast casual restaurants with solid international expansion and offering high quality products, and a preliminary look at what it has to offer speaks very well. Investors who are worried about the future of fast casual restaurants should look at Fatburger and how it has been able to thrive even while competitors have struggled. Note that it is still too soon to reach an absolute conclusion. Investors should clamor for more insight into its financial numbers such as exactly how profitable it is and how it will deal with challenges such as growing political demand for higher minimum wages and eventual competition from other American burger chains. But given this initial rosy beginning, investors should for now be willing to patiently listen and accept what Fatburger has to say.