Overview:
Chuy’s is a casual Tex-Mex restaurant with an emphasis on family recipes, fresh wholesome ingredients, affordable quality and an eclectic décor.
Transaction Rationale:
With an eclectic combination of Elvis memorabilia, hundreds of hand-carved wooden fish dangling from the ceiling, and a multi-colored tiled floor, Chuy’s restaurants have a funky, fun, eclectic, irreverent feel.
For 24 years, Management had paid close attention to Chuy’s strong value proposition: deliver fresh, authentic Mexican cuisine to the community at an affordable price. From the beginning, Chuy’s utilized family recipes from the founders’ roots in the Rio Grande Valley region of Texas. Most ingredients are freshly made from scratch to provide customers with the highest quality food. The company had excellent historical sales growth and the opportunity to vastly expand its footprint outside of Texas.
Goode Value Add:
Goode implemented strategic planning and reporting processes to align all departments and prepare the company for growth. Goode also helped the management team identify and secure third party real estate experts alongside a newly created internal function to develop and execute the company’s new unit site selection process. The team at Goode also led negotiations for an expansion of the company’s credit facilities to support continued new unit growth.
Exit:
After evaluating several alternative exit options, the company decided to take advantage of the attractiveness of the IPO market; the Company went public in July 2012.
