Ownership of BurgerFi has switched hands for a second time.
After TREW Capital Management acquired the fast casual out of bankruptcy for a $10 million credit bid, the private equity firm then sold it to the parent company of Savvy Sliders, Happy’s Pizza, and Fat Boy’s Pizza.
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The deal closed on December 13. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
The Savvy Sliders restaurant group bought 85 BurgerFi units, a decrease of eight compared to September when the fast casual entered bankruptcy. It’s a drop from the 102-unit total (75 franchised and 27 corporate) at the end of Q1.
Group president Casey Biehl says BurgerFi lost its identity and was sending a diluted message to consumers. However, he adds the chain has “a ton of legs” for future growth. In terms of technology, the executive sees an opportunity to upgrade the underutilized rewards program and evaluate changes to the app, possibly even creating a proprietary one.
“Bringing it back to its roots was something that we thought would be a pretty easy task,” Biehl says. “We already have a corporate infrastructure in place. We believe our philosophical beliefs of just providing systemwide support would yield really positive returns, and then we’re going to just assess it. Look for ways to make incremental improvements. Food buying is an area in which we’ve yielded some really great returns and looking to buy items in bulk and leverage the economies of scale by rolling it up into our other brands.”
The long-term vision would be to offer multi-concept franchising and co-branding with BurgerFi; the group has already done so with Savvy Sliders and each of the pizza concepts under one roof.
The restaurant group was also attracted to BurgerFi’s “Never Ever Program,” which means its beef is never exposed to steroids, antibiotics, growth hormones, chemicals, or additives.
“BurgerFi shares our commitment to using the highest-quality, freshest ingredients in each menu item while prioritizing the customer’s dining experience,” Happy Asker, CEO and founder of Savvy Sliders said in a statement. “We are pleased to add their award-winning chain to our family of restaurants and look forward to working with the wonderful franchisees and great team at BurgerFi. We are excited about the infrastructure we have in place to run all our great growing brands and will continue to build and serve on the great quality of the ‘Never Ever Program’ that BurgerFi customers know and love.”
BurgerFi is the largest concept in the portfolio. Savvy Sliders has 52 locations, Happy’s Pizza has 60, and Fat Boy’s Pizza has nine.
BurgerFi, which went public via a SPAC in 2020 and acquired Anthony’s in 2021 for $161 million, has struggled post-COVID, with same-store sales falling 8 percent in 2023 and 9 percent in 2022. In Q1 of 2024, comps dropped 13 percent and systemwide sales decreased by 17 percent.
Former CEO Carl Bachmann introduced a five-point plan to revamp the brand by updating infrastructure and technology, improving the menu, redefining the store footprint, implementing operational gold standards, and boosting brand awareness. But the turnaround plan wasn’t enough to increase sales.
