“Fazoli's returns to Utah with 5-store deal”

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Diving certificate:

• Fazoli's will open five locations in Utah under a franchising agreement with Valor Acquisitions Group, the brand's parent company, Fat Brands, said a press release this week.
• According to the press release, the first store developed under the agreement is expected to open in Saratoga Springs, Utah, in 2025, marking Fazoli's return to the state.
• Since taking over Fazoli's End of 2021Fat Brands has sought to expand on the Italian concept, which experienced a prolonged decline starting that year Late 90s. Fazolis The revival began earlier it was acquired by Fat.

Insight into the dive:

Taylor Wiederhorn, Fat's chief development officer, said the company's strategy for Fazoli's is focused on returning the chain to markets it once abandoned.

This strategy has proven successful in other markets such as Florida and Arizona, said Andrew Wiederhorn embattled CEO of Fatsaid on the company's most recent conference call. The brand left Arizona Late 2000s but returned in 2022 with a location in the Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. The chain has returned to business in Florida the Orlando market in 2023 after 15 years without a branch in the region.

Fazoli's recently opened six locations in Florida with the opening of its second location in Tampa. In Arizona, a recent opening in Glendale set first-weekend sales records for the chain, Wiederhorn said.

A number of once-booming brands that endured long downturns in the first decade of the millennium are working to turn things around. Friendly's, once an East Coast powerhouse, is trying to reinvent the menu and Store level renovations in a return to unit growth under Brix Holdings, which bought the dilapidated chain in 2021. Steak and Ale, a long-defunct brand, is is experiencing a revival. And Jack in the Box, which left Chicago in the 1980s, will return to this market later this year.

Although the decline in unit numbers came later, Subway is largest example of its kindand like Fazoli, it continues its reinvention after being taken over by a new owner.

Such shifts were supported by acquisitions or strategic changes, but also on a broader level consumer interest in nostalgic reinterpretations of older brands and products can also be a factor. Since the average age of The Americans are creeping upcould also increase the number of consumers willing to return to a resurrected old favorite.