Stamford, Connecticut-based Olympus Partners is pleased to announce the sale of Pepper Dining to Brinker International. Pepper Dining is one of the largest Chili’s franchisees operating 103 restaurants on the East Coast. During Olympus’ ownership, the company opened 14 new restaurants and implemented numerous operating initiatives to improve food costs, labor efficiency and customer experiences.
“Olympus has been a truly value-added partner to Pepper Dining, supporting growth initiatives while using its vast restaurant industry experience to positively impact the performance of our company,” commented John McGlone, CEO of Pepper Dining. Paul Rubin, a partner at Olympus, also commented that “John and his highly tenured team at Pepper Dining have shown great resiliency in managing the business through the casual dining downturn in 2008-09 and positioning the company today as a leading operator in the sector.”
Founded in 1988, Olympus Partners is a private equity firm focused on providing equity capital for middle market management buyouts and for companies needing capital for expansion. Olympus is an active, long-term investor across a broad range of industries, including restaurants, consumer products, healthcare services, financial services and business services. Olympus manages in excess of $5.5 billion on behalf of corporate pension funds, endowment funds and state-sponsored retirement programs.
The Olympus team included Paul Rubin, David Haddad, Robby Polakoff, and Taylor Rhyne. Pepper Dining was represented in the sale by North Point Advisors. Legal advisors were Kirkland and Ellis.