Inspire Brands has once again added to its portfolio of restaurant chains. Please read the details of the deal below.
Inspire Brands, owners of Arby's, Buffalo Wild Wings and Sonic Drive-In, has agreed to acquire the Jimmy John's sandwich chain.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Inspire will become the nation's 4th largest restaurant company with estimated annual revenues of over $14 billion.
Inspire, which has more than 11,200 restaurants in 16 countries, also owns the Rusty Taco chain founded in Dallas that opened its first East Coast location in Virginia.
Jimmy John's has about 2,800 locations in 43 states and employs 84,000 people. Atlanta-based Roark Capital Group, a private equity firm, first invested in Jimmy John's in 2016. Inspire Brands is also backed by Roark Capital.
The agreement to acquire Jimmy John's means Inspire will continue on its aggressive growth-by-acquisition strategy that has prompted the company to hire more people and invest $32 million over the next six years to grow its headquarters.
In December 2018, Inspire completed its $2.3 billion acquisition of Sonic Corp. In February 2018, Inspire closed on its $2.9 billion buy of Buffalo Wild Wings.
Inspire's acquisition of Jimmy John's is expected to close by the end of October, at which time Jimmy John's founder Jimmy John Liautaud will step down as chairman and transition to an adviser to the chain.
Jimmy John President and CEO James North will become president of the Jimmy John's division and report to Inspire CEO Brown.