Wendy’s shares jumped more than 14% Wednesday after noted investor Nelson Peltz made an offer to buy the chain, which has been struggling with high beef prices and aging stores.
Peltz’s Trian Fund Management and several partners are offering Wendy’s $7.35 per share in cash, or a premium of nearly 19% over the stock’s closing price on Tuesday, in a deal that would take the company private.
Wendy’s, which is based in Dublin, Ohio, confirmed receipt of the unsolicited proposal in a statement Wednesday and said its board has formed an independent committee to evaluate it. At the end of last year, Wendy’s had 5,969 restaurants in the U.S. and 1,428 outlets in 38 countries.
Wendy’s, founded in 1969 by Dave Thomas and named after his daughter, is known for its square burgers and Frosty desserts. The fast-growing chain introduced the drive-thru window in 1970 and went public in 1976. In the 1980s, as it jockeyed for sales with McDonald’s and Burger King, Wendy’s launched salad bars and ran its iconic “Where’s the beef?” ad campaign.
But as the fast-food market grew even more competitive and rival burger-focused chains like In-N-Out and Five Guys expanded, Wendy’s fell behind. Wendy’s share of U.S. burger chain sales fell from 11.5% in 2019 to 10.4% last year, according to Technomic, a market research company.
I don’t think there’s a single chain restaurant that is this vertically integrated. The farm-to-table shtick doesn’t scale well to “a hundred thousand acres of wheat for buns”. It works for bougie seasonal-produce, rotating-menu type places that can afford to be open 12 hours a week, 12 weeks a year.
You do realize that just McDonald’s has a 14 billion dollar a year food bill, yes? And that’s just one of them. Are we saying we cannot afford to grow our own wheat, ranch our own animals, and grow our own produce for less than that? Or will we just continue fucking the customer with higher prices as if our buying power is useless?
If a company like McDonald’s thought it was worth all that they’d already be doing it.
Not if all re-investment money is being paid to top management and shareholders, money that includes all soon to be jobless employees. McDonald’s could not only secure its own product line - from egg to tomato, and provide a shitload of jobs all the way through their system, and pretty much control their competitiveness from seed to turd. A win/win for humanity at the expense greed - the rich demand to get richer.
My opinion is ;; that.
Companies like McDonalds don’t invest in the futures of their companies - they put the money in their “shareholders” pockets.