Early this month, Krispy Kreme went public. It didn’t raise as much money as it hoped to raise and, though the stock finished the day higher it has been in decline since. On Monday the stock fell another 4% and is now below the $17 per share IPO price.
This is not keeping other companies from testing the market. Portillo’s on Monday said it has confidentially filed documents for an initial public offering, meaning an IPO will likely come between now and the end of the year. Two other companies have taken that same step already.
Others are coming, too. Here is a look at six companies that either have filed their IPO documents or are considering it:
Portillo’s. As Heather Lalley reported, the Oak Brook, Ill.-based hot dog chain said it filed its offering documents, taking a step we reported was likely last month.
Berkshire Partners, a private equity group with limited restaurant industry experience, acquired the chain for $1 billion in 2014—a number considered eye-popping at the time given that the chain had just 38 locations.
Portillo’s had 64 locations as of the end of 2020 but its sales declined 7.3% last year, a likely result of a pandemic keeping dine-in customers away. Berkshire will clearly hope that investors will ignore those numbers and bet on strong growth going forward.
Sweetgreen. This is another chain that has received otherworldly valuations from the private investment community. Like Portillo’s, it has privately filed for an initial public offering and is expected to take its shares to the public this year.
Its valuation also presents a challenge—there is some skepticism in the investment community that the fast-casual salad chain can match its enormous expectations. Still, it could be this generation of IPOs version of Shake Shack, a concept with brand recognition far beyond its unit count that went public in 2015 with considerable enthusiasm.
Dutch Bros Coffee.This is the third chain that has confidentially filed its IPO documents. The company has quietly been a strong growth chain in recent years and in 2020 bested other larger rivals like Starbucks and Dunkin’.
The drive-thru coffee chain generated $584 million in system sales in 2020 and operates more than 400 locations.
First Watch. Sources tell us that the breakfast-and-lunch chain is considering its own initial public offering this year. That would give the public markets a taste of what has quietly been one of the best performing sectors in the industry.
The chain is open only in the mornings and early afternoon, which gives it major advantages in terms of recruitment and retention. It generates strong volumes on that partial day and the company has grown remarkably well—it has more than doubled in size over the past five years despite a weak 2020 brought on by the pandemic.
The private equity group Advent International bought the chain in 2017, meaning that it is likely time for an exit.
Panera Bread. JAB Holdings bought a bunch of restaurant companies between 2012 and 2019 and now is apparently taking a bunch of companies public. It took public JDE/Peet’s in Amsterdam last year and Krispy Kreme this year.
Panera could be next. Multiple reports have suggested it is considering an IPO and sources tell us they’re interested and the sale of Au Bon Pain certainly seems like a pre-IPO move to us. Much like many of the above chains it would be banking on investors looking the other way about weakness last year and betting that customers return in the near future.
Torchy’s Tacos. The Austin, Tex.-based company has been reportedly considering an IPO for several months.
The fast-casual chain boasts strong unit volumes and has been adding units and sales for some time, having finished 2020 with 83, according to Technomic. The company is led by G.J. Hart, who was hired away from California Pizza Kitchen in 2018, the year after General Atlantic invested in the chain.