🠈 Del Frisco's Restaurant Group 🠊
Del Frisco Restaurant Group
Del Frisco's Restaurant Group, based in Irving, Tx, operates a collection of upscale restaurants. They had 73 restaurants when I wrote this page in Oct 2019. The brands include:
- Double Eagle Steak House,
- Del Frisco's Grille,
- Barcelona Wine Bar,
- and Bartaco.
In the mid 1990s. Del Frisco was acquired by Lone Star Star Steakhouse. Lone Star had the ambitions of becoming the definitive steakhouse on the planet.
The company wanted to approach the market with a three tiered attack. They would develop Del Frisco's Double Eagle as the luxury high end steakhouse. Lone Star would be a mid tier brand and middle America, and Sullivan's Steakhouse would be a scrappy contender.
Lone Star aggressively over expanded and undermined its own market. The over expansion led to a shareholder revolt which magnified the market confusion surrounding the brand. Lone Star imploded.
Lone Star spun off Sullivan's and the Double Eagle into a company called Del Frisco. The main corporation tried shedding restaurants by the hundreds but eventually found respite in a Chapter 7 Bankruptcy.
The spin off was in dicey shape as well. They had a luxury brand and a scrappy brand. The spin off attempted to diversify by buying Bartaco and Barcelona Wine Company.
But it appears that the ultimate fate is for the company to be torn apart with Romano's Macaroni Grill buying Sullivans and Landry's acquiring the Double Eagle.
Corporate History
The corporate history of Del Frisco's is confusing. The most interesting part of the merger chain is the rapid growth and implosion of Lone Star.
- 1989: A company called Creative Culinary Concepts opened a prototype for a Texas-style roadhouse called Lone Star Steakhouse & Saloon in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.3,4
- 1989: Jamie B. Coulter, who developed Pizza Hut franchises, sought to acquire the concept.3,4
- 1965: Coulter began franchising Pizza Huts in 1965. He had opened several hundred Pizza Huts and KFC franchises prior to Lone Star.3
- 1991: Coulter opened 4 Lone Star restaurants.3
- 1992: Coulter incorporated Lone Star Steakhouse & Saloon.3
- 1992: The company, with just 8 restaurants, raised $91 million for expansion in an IPO.3
- 1995: Coulter created Sullivan's Steakhouse to compete in markets that required an edgier brand.
- 1995: Lone Star acquired Del Frisco's Double Eagle Steakhouse for $23 million4.
- 1981: Del Frisco founded.
- 1997: Lone Star had grown to 265 restaurants.3
- 1998: The restaurants were undermining each other causing. The stock which had been $46 in 1996 fell to $6.
- 2001, a small shareholder named Guy W. Adams led a shareholder revolt that unseated Coulter.
- 2006: A private equity group called Lone Star Funds acquired the 222-restaurant chain for $27.10 per share in cash.
- 2010: By 2010, the company had closed over half of its restaurants and was down to 112 locations.3
- 2012: The private equity firm spun off Del Frisco and Sullivan's with an IPO on the NASDAQ with the symbol DFRG (History of DFRG).
- 2013: the private equity firm created a new entity called Day Star Restaurant Group which acquired Lone Star Steakhouse and Texas Land & Cattle. Lone Star had dwindled to 78 locations.3
- 2017: Lone Star was down to 17 restaurants and filed Chapter 11 followed by a Chapter 6 bankruptcy.3
History of the New Del Frisco's
- 2018: Romano's Macaroni Grill acquired Sullivan’s Steakhouse which had 14 locations in 12 states for $32 million.2
- 2019: L Catterton Partners acquired DFRG for $650 million ($8 per share).
- 2019: Landry is set to acquire Double Eagle and Del Frisco Grille.
References:
- Wikipedia - Del Frisco's Restaurant Group (Drawn 10/10/2019)
- FRS Magazine - Del Frisco Sells Sullivans (Drawn 10/11/2019)
- Wikipedia - Lone Star Steakhouse (Drawn 10/11/2019)
- Funding Universe - Lone Star (Drawn 10/11/2019)
- FRS Magazine - Del Frisco Buys Bartaco (Drawn 10/11/2019)