Restaurant
Private
Equity

With the highest amount of dry powder at the hands of private equity funds in history, the competition among investors to seduce smart and svelte companies is fiercer than ever. Quite often, foodservice companies make for attractive targets. 

We support the full investment lifecycle from investment thesis ideation to post-acquisition integration to ensure that risk is contained and maximize value creation through to exit.

With Aaron Allen & Associates, Private Equity Principals gain a partner with:

global restaurant industry strategy

Due to our unmatched depth and breadth of foodservice industry specialization and advisory experience, Aaron Allen & Associates is uniquely positioned at the intersection of capital, concepts, and management. 

Our significant global know-how and know-who can bring together a powerful blend of influential industry leaders and proprietary tools to effectuate remarkable results for middle market investors and operators across the full spectrum of the industry and globe.

Buy-Side Advisory

Evaluating an acquisition target? We specialize in middle market commercial and operational due diligence drawing on deep sector experience; harnessing insights from the global perspective right down to the granularity of transaction-level data analysis to precisely measure a target and model value creation opportunities.

SELL-Side Advisory

If you’re considering taking some chips off the table — potentially bringing on an equity partner or even a full buyout — you’ll want to get some discrete and competent counsel to help you consider your options. We can help with improving business performance to maximize value, build investor presentations, facilitate introductions to financial institutions and investor groups, and guide you through the process professionally and discretely.

Selling a Restaurant

Our expertise on how to sell a restaurant can significantly accelerate the process. Read our insights on the steps to selling a restaurant, a checklist for selling a restaurant, and middle-market restaurant valuations.

Buying a Restaurant

Due diligence for buying a restaurant chain is our strong suit. Read our insights on restaurant valuation and how restaurant mergers are changing the foodservice landscape.

Restaurant Finance

Benchmarking financial and operational performance is relevant whether buying or selling. Read our insights on restaurant profit margin, profit and loss statement and restaurant financing and debt.  

Aaron Allen and Associates brings to bear an unmatched toolkit and expertise when it comes to middle market. Our specialization is with companies typically with revenues between $20m–$2b, supporting with both buy-side and sell-side advisory. Our work spans emerging, established, and distressed organizations through engagements with private equity firms, institutional investors, venture capital firms, sovereign wealth funds, and family investment offices, across a broad range of capabilities:

Scan and size opportunities across the entire spectrum of the global foodservice industry with sensitive and precise measurements of where to find growth and value that match your goals.

Go beyond simply opportunistic or one-off transactions to build a more comprehensive and cohesive value creation strategy fit for the current and future state of the foodservice industry.

Benefit from first-look proprietary and pre-process deal opportunities that match your criteria afforded through access to our global know-who and diversity of existing and new clients

We support with both commercial and operational due diligence for foodservice targets. We also analyze and evaluate how technology is incorporated into restaurants, what’s the tech BOH and FOH landscape and how the product or service fits in, what’s the total addressable market, what are the competitive threats and disruption risks so that the buyer gets a clear picture of the investment potential.

Helping to set parameters for investment and finding potential concepts that fit the bill when looking for additions to a portfolio.

It’s not enough to just source and diligence a great deal, it’s also essential to get post-acquisition integration initiatives (plans, teams, expectations, and execution) pulled together exceptionally well to realize the desired ROI.

Bringing expertise honed from field and functional area experience, we support with hands-on application of value enhancement strategies. Whether it’s about the expansion of well-positioned companies or the turnaround of underperforming operations, our clients benefit from revenue growth strategies, cost optimization initiatives, and productivity improvements. We’re not just industry theorists, we’re practitioners.

We help you build a solidly defensible thesis supported by structured scenario modeling to identify and quantify value creation opportunities.

Benefit from our global know-how and know-who with building a pipeline and future story as well as identifying potential bidders and buyers for a successful exit.

When the right components are combined within a platform, the whole can be much greater than the sum of its parts — and this is reflected in valuations. 

Are you an operator or investor seeking a restaurant advisor?
We're looking forward to hearing from you.