Q&A On M&A: Roark's Steve Romaniello Talks Restaurant Deals
For the restaurant industry, a recession can mean feast or famine. For Roark Capital, the plan is to chow down. The Atlanta-based buyout firm looking both for new restaurant acquisitions and add-on to its FOCUS Brands platform, which already includes Carvel, Cinnabon, Moe's Southwest Grill, Schlotzsky's, Seattle's Best International and McAlister's Deli. Roark's $1 billion fund, which closed in 2008, is 30% deployed. I spoke with Steve Romaniello, a managing director with the firm, on being "on-trend," bidding for cheese, deal multiples, and zigging while everyone else is zagging. What's the firm's outlook for restaurant performance this year? Will sales improve? We think its going to be another difficult year. Not quite as bad as last year, but we don't expect to see meaningful improvement in many segments until we start seeing employment growth again. And no one has any idea when that will be.
