Arby’s owner Inspire Brands announced it is buying carhop-style burger chain Sonic Corp. for $2.3B, including debt.
The move builds on the fast-food conglomerate’s existing survival strategy of vacuuming up interesting restaurant chains to protect itself from the food fads and economic downturns that run rampant in the mouth-fuel industry.
You bet your sweet roast beast. Arby’s Restaurant Group (majority owned by Roark Capital) created Inspire in February after the Arby’s and Buffalo Wild Wings merger — and it’s clearly just the tip of the sauce bottle for what’s to come.
According to WSJ, CEO Paul Brown hopes to ’suade die-hards of one chain to visit others in Inspire’s expanding portfolio (which plans to buy as many as 10 chains with annual sales of up to $4.5B).
First opened in 1953 Oklahoma as a root-beer stand, Sonic is now the largest drive-in chain in the country with 3.5k restaurants in 44 states.
Like other beleaguered fast-foodies on Inspire’s roster, Sonic struggled to flip ’em fast enough to keep up with the competitive fast-food industry — Sonic shares have trailed burger barons like McDonald’s and Red Robin.
In other words, Sonic needed a pick-me-up, and Inspire was there with a silver spatula to the rescue.
Think about it: How many other roast beef sandwich fast-food restaurants can you name? 1? maybe 2? If so, they’re surely regional.
Yet, somehow, the mystery meat king tricked everyone into thinking its beef is “cool-different,” not “gross-different.”
They also invented frappuccinos (AKA, Jamocha shakes) and rebranded horseradish to “horsey sauce” so that no one even stopped to ask, “Is this just horseradish with a better name?”
Oh, and their BBQ sauce, AKA Arby’s sauce? Eat our shorts, Sweet Baby Ray’s.
RANT over.