Portfolio Company: Zoe’s Kitchen
Zoe’s Kitchen Inc. intends to use proceeds of its successful initial public offering to open 20 to 30 new restaurants this year, as reported by Nation’s Restaurant News.Jason Morgan, Zoe’s chief financial officer, said the $70 million offering with a 15-percent green sheet would allow Zoe’s to use the proceeds to pay off 100 percent of the company’s senior bank debt and leave about $30 million in cash on the balance sheet.
“That will fuel our unit growth over the next several years,” Morgan said. “It allows us to essentially be self-funding and not requiring any additional capital.”
Founded in 1995 by Zoë and Marcus Cassimus in Birmingham, Ala., Zoe’s Kitchen is owned primarily by private-equity firm Brentwood Associates, which acquired the concept in 2007.