Flynn Group—the world’s largest franchisee entity—announced Thursday that it acquired 83 Wendy’s stores.
The company now owns 277 Wendy’s restaurants, making it one of the biggest operators in the burger chain’s system. The purchased stores are based in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
READ MORE: How Flynn Group Ascended to the Pinnacle of Restaurant Franchising
Flynn Group entered the Wendy’s organization three years ago when it bought 937 Pizza Hut and 194 Wendy’s locations for $552.6 million from bankrupt franchisee NPC International. Since then, the franchisee agreed to master franchising rights in Australia and to develop 200 stores in the market over the next decade and bought the New Zealand market, which has 21 units.
“The resilience and strength of the brand, and the foresight and strategy put forth by [Wendy’s] leadership, is unmatched,” CEO Greg Flynn said in a statement. “We could not be prouder to continue to grow and scale with Wendy’s both internationally and domestically, especially now here in the Northeast.”
The business will continue to be led by Flynn Wendy’s brand president, Rasheeda Clark, who joined the company in 2022.
“Ultimately a consistent guest experience, time, time, and time again is the only way to survive in this business,” Clark told QSR magazine in March. “I think it is ensuring that you don’t fall behind industry trends to stay relevant. Technology is one of those things you can delay if you want, but if you delay, you don’t stay up to trends, and you will fall behind.”
In addition to Wendy’s, Flynn Group owns Pizza Hut master franchising rights in Australia. In June 2023, the company announced that it agreed to take over the pizza concept’s roughly 260-unit business in the country. The chain is the second-largest pizza player in Australia, behind Domino’s.
“The good news is that international is unlimited opportunity,” Flynn said to QSR magazine a few months ago. “It’s a big world out there and there are literally millions of restaurants, and I don’t see why we can’t effectively operate internationally. But I wanted to be conservative about it and take baby steps out of the country.”
Founded in 1999, Flynn Group has grown to 2,900 locations across the Applebee’s, Arby’s, Taco Bell, Panera, Pizza Hut, Wendy’s, and Planet Fitness, spanning 44 states, Australia, and New Zealand. It generates $5 billion in sales annually and employs more than 75,000 people.
