Mick McGuire, Managing partner of Marcato Capital
Marcato Capital, a hedge fund that owns 6.1% of Buffalo Wild Wings, has released yet another presentation outlining the company's failures and ways to improve it.Marcato presentations criticizing the casual dining chain are not new. This battle has been going on for months - which on Wall Street means slide decks on slide decks.
What is new this time, though, is that Marcato is now asking fellow shareholders to vote for a board shakeup at the company this Thursday. Marcato's aim remains to transition the company more toward franchise ownership, which it claims leads to more efficient management.
Now, what's also interesting here is that this particular accompanying presentation doesn't just include your run-of-the-mill hedge fund number crunching. It's full of quotes from former Buffalo Wild Wings employees and customers bashing the company.
Some gems:
"Several of the BWW expats have had communication over the last couple of days. Just wanted to let you
know that the assessment of you and your team, as it relates to the challenges with Buffalo Wild Wings, are
spot-on and things that literally we have been talking about and trying to change for years"
─ Former Buffalo Wild Wings Executive, 8/19/16
"We are surprised the Company's investor presentations continue to center on tactical efforts, like FastBreak
Lunch and Wing Tuesday, and secondary strategic priorities, like international development and new
concepts, rather than full explanations for why traffic is declining, how costs will be reduced or why the
business model is appropriate. It is not clear to us the issues and alternatives are fully understood"
─ Chris O'Cull, Keybanc, 2/7/17
And from one not so happy customer:
2/22/17: "[T]he service is atrocious…This is a common complaint among others that I have discussed my frustrations with regarding BWW
More in the deck, the good stuff starts around slide 8. Enjoy!