Wendy's sells Austin, Sacramento restaurants to HAZA Foods and Desmond Foods

By Nicel Jane Avellana

Dec 28, 2013 01:44 AM EST

The Wendy's Company said it had sold 30 restaurants in Austin and another 19 restaurants in Sacramento in separate deals. Based in Dublin, Ohio, The Wendy's Company is the third biggest quick-service hamburger company in the world. There are over 6,500 franchise and company-operated restaurants under the Wendy's system in the US, US territories and 28 other countries around the world.

The restaurants in Austin were sold to HAZA Foods, a company based in Austin, Texas, which is also an operator of 31 Wendy's restaurants in greater Houston and another three in Waco/Temple, Texas. Meanwhile, Desmond Foods bought the restaurants in Sacramento area. A Wendy's franchisee since 1973, Desmond is also an operator of 17 Wendy's restaurants in Fresno and another seven in San Francisco. The transactions, which were completed on December 27, sums up to 282 as the number of restaurants sold or which sales agreements have already been announced for this year under its System Optimization initiative.

Under the program, Wendy's had also said that restaurants in Kansas City, Phoenix, Portland, Salt Lake City, Seattle and St. Louis markets have been sold or are already covered by a sales agreement. The agreements include specific plans to redesign some restaurants under Wendy's contemporary Image Activation design. Plans for the development of new restaurants are also included in the agreements.

In a statement, Wendy's said it expects to get a higher operating margin, more robust free cash flow and improve the quality of its earnings by having a more predictable revenue stream through bigger percentages of income gained from royalties and rental through its System Optimization program.

Wendy's President and Chief Executive Officer Emil Brolick said in the statement about the leaders of the two firms that bought the restaurants, "Ali Dhanani and Craig Horn are terrific operators with a strong customer orientation. Both of their organizations understand the importance of operational excellence, have a strong balance sheet and are fully committed to restaurant reimaging.  We know their teams will work diligently to further accelerate the growth of the Wendy's brand in their respective markets."

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