Peter Piper Franchise Sells Chain

Private equity firm ACON Investments of Washington, D.C. has acquired the Peter Piper pizza chain, which plans to open 20 new stores this year, in a deal that the principals say will help the pizza chain with its expansion plans. The chain has been expanding steadily, but the infusion of capital is expected to ramp up that pace.

Peter Piper's president and CEO, Frank Sbordone, will remain at the helm of the company, along with other members of the existing management team. Company officials say they "expect to accelerate the concept's growth" this year with the 20 new locations, which are expected to help push annual revenues to more than $200 million this year.

The new locations will include company-owned restaurants in Arizona and Texas, along with franchised locations in selected markets. These will include six new restaurants in Mexico. Part of the expansion plan will focus on recruiting additional new domestic Franchise partners as the Peter Piper brand expands into new US markets, especially in the western third of the country. The chain says that it will concentrate on markets in the Northwest including Portland and Seattle, in Denver and Salt Lake City, and in the California markets of San Francisco, San Jose, Orange County and the Inland Empire.

"We've been opening new restaurants steadily at a five- to 10-percent rate for the past several years, and this investment by ACON enables us to increase that," Sbordone says. He adds that the acquisition by ACON comes at a time when the Restaurant chain has accelerated its efforts to create a brand image, has added new menu items and has begun remodeling its stores under a new design plan.

Last year, Peter Piper was ranked in the top 15 pizza chains by sales nationwide by Technomic, Inc. Food Industry Group. According to Daniel Jinich, Managing Director of ACON Investments, the investment firm sees long-term growth potential in the Peter Piper chain.

The 30-year-old Scottsdale-based chain and its franchisees operate 132 restaurants in Arizona, California, Nevada, Texas, New Mexico and Mexico. ACON, which was founded in 1997, has managed more than $1 billion of capital and typically focuses on industries and businesses at key points in their development. Terms of its acquisition of Peter Piper were not disclosed.

This article as written by Bob Howard of GlobeSt.Retail. It appeared in the January 12, 2007 IFA SmartBrief.