In 2023, Sardar Biglari quietly began buying up stock in two California-based restaurant companies: Jack in the Box and El Pollo Loco.
In 2025, he’s putting those moves into action. Earlier this year, he made an offer to buy El Pollo Loco. And now he’s increased his holdings in Jack in the Box, prompting that company to swallow a poison pill.
Biglari hasn’t said much about either situation, at least yet. But taken together, they suggest that he is looking to make noise in the industry after a long and mostly quiet period outside of Cracker Barrel.
At least part of the reason is due to the state of the industry itself. Restaurant stocks are mixed so far this year. Many companies have struggled to gain investor attention or are seeing their values decline, which could make them ripe for activist interest.
There is also the fact that shares in Biglari’s own company have taken off lately.
Biglari Holdings stock is up 59% over the past year, and 16% this year. Steak n Shake, which in 2021 flirted with bankruptcy, has apparently generated sales growth this year—at least according to its account on the social media site X—and is fully embracing the MAHA movement, to the point of inviting Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to its restaurants.
That wasn’t the case not all that long ago. Biglari Holdings’ stock last crossed $300 per share in 2016, then lost two-thirds of its value over the subsequent four years, just before the pandemic, largely on weakness at its own burger chain.
Much of his company’s investments were tied either to Biglari Holdings itself or Cracker Barrel. Biglari Capital Corp., using funds from Biglari Holdings, would acquire Biglari Holdings stock, keep it and vote the shares as the owner, which has given Big control over the company.
His 2011 investment in Cracker Barrel would make his company hundreds of millions of dollars. But he could not gain seats on the company’s board of directors and nor could he convince shareholders to demand a special dividend. In recent years he’s sold off some of that stock to help fund remodels at Steak n Shake.
His acquisition activity over that period has involved non-restaurant companies like insurance, oil and Maxim Magazine.
Big’s investments in Jack in the Box and El Pollo Loco represent a return to restaurant activism.
Biglari initially made noise as a restaurant activist investor before the Great Recession, having taken over Western Sizzlin and then Steak n Shake by winning seats on those boards. He also was an activist in Applebee’s and Friendly’s before those chains were sold. Steak n Shake’s improvement under his watch at least for a time led to ridiculous comparisons to Warren Buffett.
It's uncertain whether Biglari plans to act as an activist on Jack in the Box or has other ideas for the company. But it would be odd for him to buy a burger chain when he has one in Steak n Shake, a direct competitor.
Biglari has taken a more traditional route with El Pollo Loco. But the chicken chain’s work with the private-equity firm CapitalSpring suggests it is looking at other alternatives other than a sale to Biglari.
Both companies are potentially ripe for some form of activism. Jack in the Box shares before Big’s involvement were down 60% this year and the company’s market cap is lower than was Del Taco when Jack bought that chain in 2021. El Pollo Loco has struggled to gain investor interest since its 2014 IPO.
Activism, from Biglari or someone else, can often spur companies to improve or make changes. It remains to be seen whether that will be the case this time. But Biglari is back looking at restaurants.