Legacy Brands International will take control of Friendly’s, Clean Juice, Red Mango and four other brands, and will look to add to the collection.
UPDATE: This story has been updated to include same-store sales figures for some Brix concepts.
Brix Holdings, the owner of Friendly’s, Clean Juice and other restaurant brands, has been acquired by a Friendly’s franchisee.
Legacy Brands International operates more than 30 Friendly’s on the East Coast, or about a third of the chain. It will take over Dallas-based Brix, which has more than 250 locations across Friendly’s, Clean Juice, Orange Leaf, Red Mango, Smoothie Factory + Kitchen, Souper Salad, and Humble Donut Co.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Legacy owner Amol Kohli will become chairman of Brix, and the Brix leadership team, including CEO Sherif Mityas, will remain in place. Brix’s majority owner JAMCO Interests will also remain involved as an investor in Legacy Brands.
Kohli plans to continue growing Brix’s restaurant network and will also look for more brands to acquire. Specifically, Brix plans to expand Friendly’s, an East Coast diner chain, into Southern markets including Georgia, the Carolinas and Texas.
Kohli started at Friendly’s as a waiter at age 15 and began operating locations in 2009. “I plan to take that to the next level in this new chapter of BRIX Holdings’ ownership to grow the size, scale and infrastructure for all our franchise networks and systems,” he said in a statement.
Brix’s brands struggled mightily last year with sales declines and closures. Systemwide sales fell 7% at Friendly’s, 9% at Red Mango, 10% at Orange Leaf and almost 30% at Clean Juice, which closed nearly 50 stores prior to the acquisition. That’s according to data from Technomic’s ranking of the 1,500 largest U.S. restaurant chains.
But the closures have produced better results at the same-store level. Friendly’s same-store sales increased 1%, Orange Leaf’s rose 14% and Red Mango’s were up 6.2%. The company said that momentum has continued this year, with several new openings and more locations in development, as well as eight new franchise agreements.
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