Wiederhorn says the company has “an active pipeline of acquisition opportunities,” and expects to make “one or two more,” before 2020.

“We don’t have a pizza brand yet,” he says. “We don’t have a coffee and dessert brand. We don’t have a sandwich brand. Those kinds of things would round out our portfolio. But there would also be no issue adding another burger or wings brand, if it made sense geographically or in terms of product offering.”

Elevation Burger is a good example. Yes, FAT Brands was in the burger game already. But Elevation gives the company an East Coast presence it lacked before, with 30 or so units scattered up and down the region. Hollywood-famous Fatburger returned to the East Coast in June with a co-branded (with Buffalos Express) restaurant in Trout Run, Pennsylvania. A Cherry Hill, New Jersey, store opened later in the month. Now, they can scale together.

In addition to the map expansion, Elevation gave FAT Brands a specialized platform. It features differentiators that appeal to perspective and current franchisees and helps aid the cross-selling process for FAT Brands. Things like grass fed, USDA certified organic, halal, fresh-cut fries cooked in olive oil, etc. FAT Brands can sprinkle Elevation into markets where these sorts of trends have traction, like California and New York.

Wiederhorn says Elevation “didn’t really get big enough to move the needle anywhere,” which led to the founders looking for a way to capitalize on their efforts.

“We say when these smaller brands come under our platform, look, you’re going to get better purchasing power. And you get the benefit of our marketing department where we don’t have to reinvent the wheel every time,” Wiederhorn says.

FAT Brands, especially its burger and wings brands, can run similar promotions across the system tailored to the customization of a particular brand name. It can also do things like roll plant-based proteins, such as the Impossible Burger, across all multiple brands, which it did minus the steakhouses. It’s been a hit at Yalla—a five-year-old fast casual FAT Brands bought in August 2018.

In the second quarter of fiscal 2019—announced August 13—the company posted total revenues of $5.9 million, up 50.8 percent from $3.9 million in the prior-year period.

Broken down by brands, here’s how FAT Brands’ Q2 same-store sales, year-over-year, shook up.

• Fatburger: –1.7 percent worldwide; –0.6 percent North America.
• Buffalo’s Café: 0.8 percent.
• Hurricane Grill & Wings: 4.9 percent
• Ponderosa/Bonanza: –2.7 percent

As a company, FAT Brands’ systemwide sales upped 26.3 percent driven primarily by the $12.5 million acquisition of Hurricane Grill & Wings in July of last year.

Hurricane has enjoyed a pretty dramatic turnaround since the deal. It pushed negative comps in the mid-single digits before FAT Brands came in. Thanks to a new advertising campaign, Wiederhorn says, the numbers flipped around.

FAT Brands has also seen success with co-branding locations, which, historically, carry a bit of a troubled stigma for some operators. It was a path that didn’t pan out at times for A&W and Long John Silver’s.

Wiederhorn says co-branding success is really determined by whether or not the concepts fit in a way that drives up check. FAT Brands estimates its co-branding initiatives result in a 20–30 percent increase in average-unit volumes compared to stand-alone stores, with minimum incremental cost to franchisees. Burgers and wings, for instance, make sense. “People who were getting burgers, including an Impossible Burger, and then they can get a basket of wings to share if they want. That’s the menu diversity that it creates,” he says.

“It’s marginally very profitable for the operator,” Wiederhorn adds, “because they have to buy a bit more equipment, a bit more signage, but can get a higher average check. AUVs increase because you’re selling more product. And when you put it on the delivery platforms it really pays off because we’re able to offer multiple brands out of one kitchen.”

FAT Brands’ franchisees opened eight new restaurants in Q2: a co-branded Fatburger and Buffalo’s Express in Huntington Beach, Glendora, and Monrovia, California. The Trout Run store. Locations in Pine Centre and Langford, British Columbia; a Beijing, restaurant; and one in Tempe Arizona.

Year to date, FAT Brands has opened 16 franchises compared to 14 during all of 2018. The goal is about 30 units in 2019 and the pipeline has more than 200 restaurants worldwide yet to be built, Wiederhorn says.

FAT Brands announced last quarter a three-unit development deal for co-branded Fatburger and Buffalo's Express locations in the Dallas-Fort Worth market; a 10-unit agreement deal for co-branded locations in Canada; a 25-unit deal throughout Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, and Austin, Texas; a development deal for Fatburger in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in partnership with Isleta Resort & Casino; and a development deal for Fatburger in the Rolling Hills Casino in Northern California.