Dear customers, franchisees and prospective stockholders of FAT Brands Inc.:
I am delighted to finally position our brands so that you can all be part owners, as well as lovers of our delicious Fresh, Authentic and Tasty burgers, shakes, fries, chicken wings, steaks and other offerings! We are fortunate to have been appreciated by so many of you over the years as loyal diners in our restaurants, and we have worked hard to keep our products tasting the same, as we’ve grown our brands and transition from a private company to the public world.
Our dedication to quality is reflected by our wide following around the world. Across our brands, we have over 43,500 Twitter followers, 68,000 Instagram followers, and over 1,000,000 Facebook likes. We sold more than 15,000,000 hamburger patties, 10,000,000 steaks and 3,000,000 pounds of chicken wings last year, and that’s just the beginning of where we plan to grow as members of the FAT Brands family.
Our histories span more than 70 years, from Fatburger’s start as a hamburger stand in front of our founder Lovie Yancey’s house on Western Avenue in South Central Los Angeles. The Ponderosa and Bonanza Steak House brands were both created more than 50 years ago. Bonanza in Westport, Connecticut by Dan Blocker, who played Eric “Hoss” Cartwright on the famous TV show called Bonanza and shortly thereafter Ponderosa by Dan Lasater with a few friends in Kokomo, Indiana. Our Buffalo’s Cafe brand was started by Ralph Perella in Roswell, Georgia over 30 years ago.
Over these many years you can imagine the millions of meals these storied brands have served to so many families and hungry customers. We’ve been fortunate to inject technology into our business without compromising service or food quality. From mobile apps, home delivery partner apps, loyalty programs, customer feedback and survey systems, store locators, restaurant kitchen safety and management reporting systems, and even point of sale systems technology is everywhere and we are focused on utilizing it to improve operational and financial performance without sacrificing the guest experience. Each member of our senior management team receives every single customer on-line feedback/complaint that is entered in real time on their mobile device. Having our finger on the pulse of our restaurants allows us to better support our franchisees and be aware of customer experiences.
I take very seriously my role in bringing these brands and families of customers together and creating FAT Brands Inc. Our growth from North America to a presence in many countries around the world gives me great pleasure in knowing that I’m sharing these delicious recipes with fans everywhere. We have restaurants in Beijing, Shanghai, Jakarta, Manila, Panama City, London, Vancouver, Dubai, Riyadh, Doha, Cairo, Tunis, Erbil (Iraq), Karachi, and many other places. We know our fans around the world enjoy our food. I can’t take all the credit though. Our franchisees really deserve the most credit. They are the owners of the restaurants that serve you day in and day out. They have invested their money to own, operate, and support their communities and families and they have built their livelihoods based upon the delicious taste, outstanding quality of the food, consistency and the great service they deliver to you each and every day for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Also, I want to remember and praise our franchise employees and team members. As a young 13 year old boy, having watched my father pass away from lung cancer when I was only 9 years old, I began working in the restaurant business for my now father-in-law, and Fatburger’s President and Chief Operating Officer. I started sorting bottles, washing dishes and busing tables. I learned a great deal during those 5 years before college about how hard and gratifying it is to work in a restaurant with fellow employees and team members, bringing satisfaction to customers, and how physically exhausting yet rewarding that experience is. Our team members today work thanklessly long hours and physically demanding jobs to bring these meals to customers and then do it again the next day and the next. They truly love their jobs.
Someone once taught me two things about the restaurant business: first, that “there are no new ideas in the restaurant industry, just the same ideas repackaged and repositioned, good food and good service is just that, no matter what it looks like” and second that “your best ideas come from your franchise operators and not from the corporate office, because they are the ones every day in the restaurants listening to what customers want”.
My goal is to continue to remember those lessons learned, keep our franchise partners in mind, appreciate our franchise employees and team members and make sure our restaurants continue to deliver FRESH, AUTHENTIC, TASTY food to customers around the world. We would be proud to count you as a stockholder and we appreciate your patronage and partnership.
Sincerely
Andrew A. Wiederhorn
Chief Executive Officer
FAT Brands Inc.
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1705012/000149315217010945/partiiandiii.htm#a_013 (Pg. 68)
