Dave's Hot Chicken Acquired for $1B By Roark Capital
Dave's Hot Chicken, which began in 2017, announced on Monday that it was acquired by private equity firm (and Subway owner) Roark Capital in a $1 billion deal.
The chicken shop, which specializes in a hot, Nashville-style of the bird, expects to open 155 locations this year and end 2025 with 400 restaurants worldwide, according to a press release.
Not bad for a company that began with a group of childhood friends in an East Hollywood, California, parking lot.
Related: 'It Was Like a Drug': How Dave's Hot Chicken Grew a Cult Following From a Parking Lot
"This is one of the great entrepreneurial journeys of our time, and now we begin the next chapter in the story," said Bill Phelps, Dave's Hot Chicken's CEO, in a press release. "Our entire organization is excited about the fit between Dave's Hot Chicken and Roark, and we're looking forward to continuing to blow our guests' minds and unlocking growth and value for our franchise partners."
According to data from Placer.ai, "Big Chicken" is on the up, and Dave's Hot Chicken was the leader of the flock, with the "most significant" year-over-year visit growth (67.2% in Q4 2024 and 60.0% in Q1 2025) of all the chicken chains, including Huey Magoo's, Super Chix, and Raising Cane's.
Dave Kopushyan, the "Dave" in the name, is one of the founders and the chef who began slinging the now-famous hot chicken using portable fryers and folding tables. He told Entrepreneur in 2022 that the company's fast success is making them work even harder.
"You just have to be present for all of it," Kopushyan said. "And you have to believe in your product and use that motivation to keep going."
Related: Private Equity Giant Blackstone Acquires Jersey Mike's Subs for $8 Billion
In 2019, Dave's began franchising, and the company says it has sold the rights to more than 1,000 locations in the U.S., the Middle East, and Canada.
Roark is based in Atlanta and specializes in franchised businesses, per the AP. It purchased Subway sandwiches in 2023 and backs a slew of restaurant chains, from Jimmy John's to Jamba Juice.
Dave's Hot Chicken Sliders - Courtesy of Dave's Hot Chicken
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Bloomberg
14 minutes ago
- Bloomberg
US Inflation to Tick Higher as Tariffs Reach Consumers
By and Craig Stirling Save Subscribe to Economics Daily for the latest news and analysis. US consumers probably saw slightly faster inflation in May, notably for merchandise, as companies gradually pass along higher import duties.
Travel Weekly
23 minutes ago
- Travel Weekly
Are you booking or designing travel?
Richard Turen Looking back, I know that I would never have opened up a travel consultancy had I not worked the supplier side for quite a while. And I certainly would not dare write about our industry had I not walked both sides of the street. They are very different, even though they might be in the same neighborhood. I worked for one of the largest cruise lines, starting out on the West Coast. I visited travel agencies four days a week. I was a director of sales, and my job was to drum up business. But my reality was that our ships were starring in a little TV series called "The Love Boat" then, and they were sold out much of the time. I might have been a lousy salesperson, but no one knew it, and I was promoted to be vice president of the East Coast and the Midwest. Now I was responsible for 26 states; lots of agencies to visit. So starting on the West Coast and then taking on the East Coast and the Midwest, I was in and out of more agencies than I could count. During every visit, I was looking forward to discovering dozens of new business models. It would all be so stimulating. But it usually wasn't! There were precious few unique business models, and innovation was rare. Everything was sold on some sort of airline-owned CRM system. Airline sales made up just over 70% of a typical agency's sales. It was always the same scene. Two chairs in front of a desk with the client facing the back of the computer. And so it was for about four decades. Technology improved, and we noticed our clients searching online instead of seeking out a storefront. We were no longer booking robots; that could be done online. We started evolving into advisors. ASTA, an organization I feel has always had the collective backs of the membership it represents, caught on and went so far as to change its organization's name, with that last "A" now standing for "advisors" rather than "agents." We are now advisors -- sort of important to the families we serve. I see us as financial advisors, except our role is less about showing our clients how to grow their money and more about advising them on ways to dispense with some of it. Which leads me to an April article by Julie Bogen in the Washington Post. She explores the growth of the trend for agents to describe themselves as online travel "designers" who concentrate on creating truly personalized itineraries, travel troubleshooting and providing luxury perks. The article explains how contemporary consumers want to hire a "designer" instead of an "agent." The concept of a travel "agent" is now dated. Several successful designers are profiled in the piece, including one who created an itinerary with perks she felt would meet the needs of four prominent influencers. Sure enough, they liked the presentation, and it started being circulated on Instagram. Of course, a true travel designer has to be an FIT specialist, and some of you will surely feel that FITs are unusually time-consuming and less profitable than booking brochure programs. A travel office where every journey is custom-designed to meet the guest's profile may be fashionable, trendy, hip and always personalized, but I can't help but wonder what a travel design firm would need to charge guests in order to be profitable. I actually like the "designer" designation. I also like "travel architect" and "dream creator." It is possible that, at our best, we listen and then design what is best suited for the client instead of trying to sell them a program without taking into account their unique profile. But will we have to start spending more on our business attire if we start describing ourselves as designers? Will we need to be a bit more flamboyant? If we "flamboyantize" our industry in the months to come, I'm just not sure that my blue blazer will survive.
Wall Street Journal
29 minutes ago
- Wall Street Journal
Tesla, Cleveland-Cliffs, Dollar General and More Stocks That Defined the Week
U.S. steelmakers rallied on President Trump's recent move to double steel and aluminum tariffs to 50%. Cleveland-Cliffs shares surged 23% on Monday, while Steel Dynamics and Nucor shares each gained 10%. Meantime, bargain chains are bucking the trend of falling retail demand, thanks to an influx of higher-income customers looking for deals. Dollar General shares soared 16% Tuesday. And as a fierce feud between President Trump and Elon Musk ramped up on Thursday. Tesla shares fell 14% Thursday, losing about $152.4 billion in market value, the company's biggest one-day slide on record. Read more about this week's biggest stock moves and the news that drove them:
