A Deeper Dive

Consumers are changing again coming out of the pandemic, and that is expected to change the market for restaurant chains. This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast “A Deeper Dive” features Dave Bagley, the managing director of Carl Marks Advisors, to provide an outlook for acquisitions coming out of the pandemic. Bagley leads the restaurant group at the New York-based investment bank and has more than 20 years of experience in corporate finance, operations management, profit improvement and interim management roles.

The Technomic Top 500 Chain Restaurant Report, released earlier this month, has provided a clear picture of just how much the pandemic has influenced the restaurant industry. Joe Pawlak, managing principal with Restaurant Business sister company Technomic, joins this week’s episode of the podcast “A Deeper Dive” to talk about the ranking, including what chains won and what chains lost.

Why are there so few Black and women CEOs? Activist investors. Or so says James White, the former CEO of Jamba, and Thomas Lynch, senior managing director of the private equity firm Mill Road Capital. White recently joined Lynch’s firm to be part of its newly created Progressive Governance Fund, which seeks to improve diversity at smaller companies through targeted investments. White and Lynch argue that activist investors ultimately hurt the long-term value of the restaurant companies they target. But they also argue that activists hurt diversity, frequently by pushing out Black or women CEOs or board members and then nominating mostly white men.

The latest acquisition in Flynn Restaurant Group’s history was its biggest. This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast features Greg Flynn, the giant franchisee’s founder and CEO, who discusses the company’s recent acquisition of most of NPC International’s restaurants. Flynn Restaurant Group has grown over the past couple of decades largely through a series of increasingly large acquisitions. But the purchase of NPC was likely the biggest in U.S. franchise history, essentially merging the two largest franchise operators in the U.S.

Fast-food chains are gung-ho for chicken sandwiches these days. This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast “A Deeper Dive” explores why. Patricia Cobe, RB’s menu editor, discusses the industry’s sudden fascination with upgraded chicken sandwiches and why.

How will an upscale casual chain prepare for a potential flood of post-pandemic customers? This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast “A Deeper Dive” features Tim McEnery, CEO and founder of Cooper’s Hawk Winery & Restaurants, to talk about the chain’s strategies coming out of quarantine.

Why have SPACs suddenly become so popular among investors? This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast “A Deeper Dive” features Andy Pforzheimer, the longtime industry executive who helped create the Tastemaker SPAC with former Jamba CEO Dave Pace.

Del Taco has big plans for its new prototype. This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast “A Deeper Dive” features John Cappasola, CEO of the 600-unit Mexican chain, to talk about the chain’s “Fresh Flex” prototype and why the new design can help the company expand in the post-pandemic era.

How did Golden Corral, the country’s biggest buffet chain, survive a pandemic in which it couldn’t operate much if not all of its buffets? Lance Trenary, the chain’s CEO, answers that question on this week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast “A Deeper Dive.”

Virtual brands are big and getting bigger. And they could change the restaurant industry. This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast “A Deeper Dive” features myself along with RB’s technology editor, Joe Guszkowski, to talk about what might be the biggest single trend in the industry: The proliferation of delivery-only restaurants, or virtual brands.