Fat Brands Announces Latest Acquisition with Purchase of Native Grill & Wings for $20 Million

Fat Brands, one of the industry’s largest franchisors, has agreed to acquire the 23-unit chicken franchise Native Grill & Wings for $20 million from Wingtime LLC, a subsidiary of Cybeck Capital Partners LLC, the company announced last week. The announcement comes as the franchisor continues to prioritize acquisitions as a key post-pandemic growth strategy, entering both new categories and expanding its existing sectors. Native Grill & Wings will become the third chicken-wing concept in Fat Brands’ portfolio.  

"With the chicken wing sector growing in popularity throughout the pandemic, we knew that we wanted to continue developing our portfolio further into this category by bringing in a brand that would complement our existing wing concepts," Andy Wiederhorn, Fat Brands president and CEO said in the press release. "Native Grill & Wings has been on our radar for some time, given its ability to remain nimble and deliver strong systemwide sales growth over the past year."

Native Grill & Wings marks the fourth acquisition for Fat Brands this year alone — the company bought Global Franchise Group in July for $442.5 million, Twin Peaks in October for $300 million and Fazoli's in November for $130 million. Now, Fat Brands will feature over 2,300 franchised and corporate-owned stores globally with systemwide sales of about $2.3 billion, the press release states.

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