Clifford Hudson spent two decades with the Sonic brand, taking the chain public as CEO and later leading it through a sale to Roark Capital in 2018.
After that, however, he felt like he had something to offer younger operators looking to grow their brands.
So he brought together a few buddies who also happened to be industry veterans, most of whom he knew through Sonic, to join forces. They created DIA Equity Partners, an investment fund that last week announced the acquisition of Nature’s Table, a fast-casual franchise concept with units in Florida, Georgia and Indiana.
DIA, which was an acronym for Do It Again, was initially set up as a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC. Those shell companies had become a thing in the post-pandemic years. In 2021, Hudson and his group had hoped to raise $125 million with an initial public offering, but—like several SPAC attempts in the restaurant space that year—the effort didn’t come to fruition. In 2022, DIA withdrew the registration.
But that didn’t stop Hudson and the others who signed on. The group includes Sid Feltenstein, former chair and CEO of Yorkshire Global Restaurants Inc. (Long John Silver and A&W); as well as Craig Miller, the former chief digital and information officer of Sonic and Planet Fitness (and not the same Craig Miller recently named CEO of the Bravo/Brio casual dining brands).
There’s also former Sonic franchisee Ted Kergan, who founded Kergen Brothers Restaurants; and Neal Black, the former CEO of Jos. A Bank Clothiers, and a former Sonic board member.
“Each of us have, I think, a complementary set of skills,” said Hudson.
So they set out to acquire a brand with growth potential—one that perhaps needed a little help with brand refinements or technology.
Hudson, who lives in Oklahoma City, first became interested in a fast-casual brand operating locally called Bee Healthy Café, then run by founder Amir Alavi with Cody Pepper, with about 10 units in 2022.
Bee Healthy Cafe features smoothies, salads and wraps. | Photo courtesy of Bee Healthy Cafe.
The concept didn’t meet DIA’s criteria—the group was looking for brands that operated in more than one market, and Bee Healthy was only in Oklahoma City. But Hudson was intrigued and ended up acquiring it himself. Bee Healthy now has 15 units, mostly company owned.
Then, last year, Hudson was introduced to another fast-casual concept that he said was “stunningly similar” to Bee Healthy: Nature’s Table, created by founders Rich Wagner and Bryan Buffalo, with a similar focus on healthful smoothies, sandwiches, wraps and salads. Both brands targeted locations in office buildings, gyms and institutional settings, like hospitals.
And Nature’s Table operated in several markets. With the potential for scale between the two brands now representing nearly 60 units, DIA was ready to get involved.
Hudson said he spent the better part of 2024 negotiating the deal.
Nature's Table and Bee Healthy are similar in menu offerings. | Photo courtesy of Nature's Table.
“We were buying it from founders, and that has its own particular set of challenges,” he said. “These are people who are selling their baby, so it’s not a purely financial transaction for them.”
Both brands are now housed under the newly created Fast Fresh Brands (FFB), owned mostly by DIA, though all four founders (between the two brands) hold a stake in the parent operation. Pepper of Bee Healthy was named CEO of FFB.
Ultimately, the goal is to add more brands to the platform, though, for now, Hudson said the plan is to focus on organic growth of these two brands, with company-owned units in Oklahoma City and franchising elsewhere.
Given they are both breakfast/lunch concepts, they offer franchisees a better work-life balance, Hudson said.
One goal of Pepper is to encourage franchisees in new markets to open with a larger flagship as a central kitchen, followed by much smaller satellite sites that could be served by the flagship, lowering build-out costs, Hudson said.
“The lifestyle is less demanding, and the return on initial investment can be quite handsome,” said Hudson.
The individual brand names will remain, but the platform will bring some common purchasing and marketing to the two concepts.
For Hudson, it’s not just about capital, but also about chemistry.
“We felt good chemistry among us,” said Hudson. “And we felt like we would have something to offer younger people in the industry as it relates to the growth experiences we each have had.”