The Wendy’s Company on February 17 announced the sale of 70 restaurants in the Dallas-Ft. Worth metroplex area to Texas-based MUY Hamburger Partners, LLC, a Wendy’s franchisee. The transaction was part of the Dublin, Ohio, USA-headquartered fast food operator’s system optimization initiative, designed to promote new restaurant growth and reimaging, while generating a more predictable revenue stream for the company.
Wendy’s is geographically concentrating its restaurant ownership through the sale of about 415 company-operated restaurants in 13 regions of the United States, primarily in the West. It has completed the market-by-market sale of 314 outlets so far, and now expects to complete all of the sales by the end of the first quarter of 2014. The company anticipates total proceeds from system optimization of approximately $235 million, including $138 million in 2013.
With the purchase of the Dallas-Ft. Worth restaurants, MUY Hamburger Partners, led by President and CEO James Bodenstedt, will now operate 87 Wendy’s restaurants in Texas.
The purchase agreement includes a commitment to reimage selected units in Wendy’s contemporary image activation restaurant design, as well as development plans for new restaurants.
As a result of system optimization, Wendy’s expects to generate a higher operating margin and stronger free cash flow, along with further enhancing the quality of its earnings with a more predictable revenue stream from a higher percentage of royalty and rental income.
Wendy’s is the world’s third-largest quick-service hamburger chain. Its system includes more than 6,500 franchise and company-operated restaurants in the United States and 28 additional countries and US territories worldwide.
