Mo' Bettahs' Owners Decide it's Mo' Bettah to Sell a Majority Equity Stake to Two New Investors: Blue Marlin Partners and Trive Capital

After opening its first Mo' Bettahs Hawaiian Style Food quick serve restaurant in 2008, it took Kimo & Kalani Mack (the co-founder brothers) eight years to reach six total locations in 2016.

But in eight additional years (after first engaging with Utah-based investment banker, Crewe Capital), Mo' Bettahs sold a majority interest to Utah-based Savory Fund in 2017 for an undisclosed, all-cash amount, with Crewe taking a minority slice as well.

Since 2017, Mo' Bettahs has added 50 additional locations, with Store No. 56 opening just four days ago in Henderson, Nevada.

But today, the companies announced that a majority interest in Mo' Bettahs has been sold to two private equity firms — Blue Marlin Partners and Trive Capital — with Savory and Crewe retaining "significant minority stakes" in Mo' Bettahs.

A majority ownership stake in Bountiful, Utah-headquartered Mo' Bettahs Hawaiian Style Food has been sold by Lehi, Utah-based Savory Fund to two private equity firms:

• Bethesda, Maryland-based Blue Marlin Partners, and
• Dallas, Texas-based Trive Capital.

As noted in a news release announcing the sale, with the closing of the transaction, Savory and Salt Lake City, Utah-based investment banking firm, Crewe Capital, will both retain "significant minority stakes" in Mo' Bettahs.

That said, financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Mo' Bettahs: The Rest of the Story

As previously reported by Utah Money Watch in July 2023, it was their love of community connections created through food that led Hawaiian-natives, Kimo and Kalani Mack, to decide to start a Hawaiian-style quick serve restaurant in 2008 in Bountiful, Utah (of all places) — during the height of the Great Recession.

Although their initial sense was to focus on steak as the main protein in their inaugural store, it soon became clear that chicken, especially Katsu Chicken, was the most popular meat offered on their menu.

Over time the brothers expanded into other protein offerings, but decided to keep their menu fairly compact with just a handful of items, including two primary side dishes: sticky white rice and macaroni salad.

By 2016, Mo' Bettahs had expanded to six locations, each in Utah, and they were fielding numerous investment offers and requests to sell franchises to interested parties.

But the brothers demurred.

They did, however, decide to enter into an investment banking relationship with Crewe Capital in 2017, which advised the brothers on the sale of majority ownership in the firm to Four Foods Group (now Savory Fund) for an undisclosed, all-cash amount.

And then the company took off.

Over the next eight years, Savory helped drive Mo' Bettahs growth to 56 locations across seven states from what had been six stores in 2016.

That explosive growth was recognized by Nation's Restaurant News in 2023 when Mo' Bettahs was feted by NRN as

• One of the 10-fastest-growing restaurants in America (based upon revenue), and
• A member of NRN's list of its Top 500 restaurants in the United States.

In its midsummer 2023 write-ups about Mo' Bettahs, NRN noted that in 2022,

• The firm produced $71.1 million in systemwide U.S. sales in 2022, which equated to
• Year-over-Year growth of over 84.6%,

clearly, great numbers.

And then this summer Mo' Bettahs hit NRN's list once again for its ranking of the 500 Top restaurants in the U.S.

In fact, according to a 26 June 2024 NRN writeup,

"... Mo’Bettahs ... finished 2023 with about $80 million in sales and about 50 locations, or just over 40% year-over-year sales growth and just over 31% year-over-year unit-count growth."

Phase III for the Mack Brothers and Mo' Bettahs

In today's writeup about the Mo' Bettahs sale, NRN reports that the QSR chain ended 2023 with

• "... about $80 million in sales,
• "(More than) 40% year-over-year growth, (with 2024 revenue projected at)
• "... close to $100 million in sales at the end of this year.
• "(That puts) ... Mo’ Bettahs’ revenue (at) a staggering 178% (from 2022 through 2024)."

Now, however, Mo' Bettahs is entering Phase III of its 16-year life as a majority stake has been sold to two private equity firms — Blue Marlin Partners and Trive Capital for an undisclosed amount.

As noted above, both Savory Fund and Crewe Capital are each retaining "significant minority stakes" in Mo' Bettahs.

NRN also reported today that the co-founder brothers will also retain a minority stake in the chain.

This means that Kimo and Kalani will have the opportunity for a likely "third bite" at the "Exit Apple," as

1. They got paid in 2017 when they sold a majority stake to Savory/Four Foods,
2. They got paid with today's sale to the Blue Marlin and Trive, and, when one or both sell their stake(s) to another buyer(s), and
3. The Mack brothers should get paid again for their equity stakes in Mo' Bettahs ... a "third bite" at the "Exit Apple."

As far as the future is concerned, NRN reports that the new majority owners plan to accelerate growth for Mo' Bettahs, with as many as 20 new locations targeted for opening in the next year, which would represent nearly a 40% YoY growth rate.

Obviously, whether these new PE owners can achieve such growth or not is hard to predict, let alone "bet the house on."

But based upon my prior interactions with the Mack brothers, and principals at both Savory and Crewe, I would not discount such projected growth either ... especially when the meals Mo' Bettahs serves-up are sooooooo tasty!!!

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