PRIVATE EQUITY OWNED
Arby's
Includes Arby's Restaurant Group
fast food · Atlanta, GA
- PE Firm
- Roark Capital →
- Acquirer
- Inspire Brands
- Year Acquired
- 2011
They had the meats. Then Roark Capital had the receipts.
The PE Playbook
- Roark Capital acquired Arby's in 2011 for ~$430M and used it as the foundation for Inspire Brands — an acquisition chain that swallowed Sonic, Buffalo Wild Wings, Jimmy John's, and Dunkin'
- Arby's has underperformed the restaurant industry by 23% since acquisition; sales declined 6.3% in 2024
- Net loss of 48 locations in 2024 alone with closures continuing into 2025 across at least 8 states
- Roark's strategy of acquiring brands and folding them into Inspire means each chain gets corporate management focused on the portfolio, not on making the roast beef better
Since the Acquisition
- Arby's relabeled its kid-size fries and drinks as 'small,' the old small became 'medium,' and the old medium became 'large' — same portions, bigger names, and a 2024 lawsuit calls it textbook shrinkflation
- A New York Post test found that small, medium, and large fries all contained nearly the same amount of food — three price points, one portion size
- 48 locations quietly closed in 2024, with another 14+ gone across eight states in early 2025 — if your Arby's disappeared, it probably won't be coming back
- Customer reviews consistently describe roast beef that's 'dry as cardboard' with 'barely any meat on the sandwich' — what shows up in the bag looks nothing like the menu board
Sources
- Arby's quietly closes dozens of locations — TheStreet(2025-08-15)
- Arby's quietly closes dozens of locations — TheStreet (archive)(2025-08-15)
- Roark Capital's Aggressive Buyout Strategy May Not Be Working — Food Institute(2024-06-05)
- How is Roark Capital's track record? — Restaurant Business(2024-06-03)