Arby's and Buffalo Wild Wings are joining forces to create a fast-food empire - here's what could change
- The owner of Arby's, Roark Capital Group, announced it would buy Buffalo Wild Wings for $2.9 billion in November 2017. The deal was finalized on Monday.
- The two restaurants will be run separately under the name of a new company, Inspire Brands Inc.
- With the merging could come some changes for the two chains.
Arby's parent company, Roark Capital Group, confirmed on Monday that its deal to acquire fast-casual restaurant chain Buffalo Wild Wings has been completed.
The deal was initially announced in November 2017. Roark Capital, which also owns Arby's and Cinnabon, agreed to buy Buffalo Wild Wings for about $2.9 billion. The two chains will fall under the new name of Inspire Brands Inc. but will be kept as separate and distinct brands, a spokesperson for Arby's told Business Insider on Monday.
But, we can certainly expect to see some changes.
"Arby's and Buffalo Wild Wings will share best practices with each other, and most importantly, will have access to a variety of shared resources, such as consumer-facing and back-of-house technologies," the spokesperson said.
Since Arby's CEO Paul Brown took over in 2013, the fast-food chain has undergone a radical transformation. Brown has executed a successful turnaround, resulting in record sales in 2016.
Investors are hoping Brown can do the same for Buffalo Wild Wings, which has struggled in recent years after being impacted by an industry-wide slump in casual dining. The company's executives have also been accused of mismanagement by activist investor Marcato Capital Management. In June 2017, CEO Sally Smith announced she was leaving the company after Marcato gained control of the company's board.
Here are some of the other changes we could potentially see now that the two restaurants have merged: