Deal focus: Adamantem extends Retail Zoo’s PE story

Private equity investors can claim to have contributed to the development of Australia’s largest multi-brand food and beverage operators.

Collins Foods was taken public by Pacific Equity Partners in 2011 and it now has more than 340 KFC and Taco Bell restaurants across Asia Pacific and Europe with annual revenue of nearly AUD 1bn (USD 695m). Craveable Brands remains under PE ownership – it has been from Quadrant Private Equity to Archer Capital to PAG – and has 580 Red Rooster, Oporto, and Chicken Treat outlets.

Retail Zoo has a somewhat different brand portfolio, comprising fruit juice and smoothie specialist Boost Juice, casual dining operator Betty’s Burgers, healthy Mexican offering Salsas, and coffee shop operator Cibo Espresso. Yet the scale – 750 outlets and counting – and ambition are similar.

“Boost is the clear market leader in juices and smoothies in Australia, a 20-year-old iconic brand with consistent year-on-year growth, and Bettys is the fastest-growing casual dining brand in Australia. They complement each other very nicely and the platform is well poised to continue growing and potentially add on other brands,” said Georgina Varley, a partner at Adamantem Capital.

Adamantem recently became Retail Zoo’s third consecutive PE owner, acquiring a majority stake in the business from Bain Capital for an enterprise value of around AUD 350m, according to a source close to the situation. Adamantem declined to comment on financial details. It is the fifth deal from the firm’s second fund of AUD 794.8m, which targets assets in the AUD 100m-AUD 500m range.

Bain bought a 70% stake in Retail Zoo from The Riverside Company in 2014 at a valuation of AUD 185m. Several purported IPO attempts were thwarted by unfavourable market conditions before the secondary sale materialised. Adamantem moved for the asset at the end of last year, having sought to add food retail to its collection of consumer sector companies.

The timing was in part driven by Adamantem wanting to see ample evidence of post-pandemic recovery. “You look at what happened pre-COVID and post-COVID and form a view on the growth trajectory,” Varley added. “We had access to a lot of data; they have a good historical track record. The business bounced back extremely well post-lockdown and we took comfort from that.”

Boost Juice is the platform mainstay with 360 outlets in Australia and 315 overseas, operated under sub-franchise or master franchise agreements. However, Betty’s is the fast riser. It started out as a Queensland burger shack, was absorbed into the Retail Zoo platform in 2017 and has since grown from eight to 54 restaurants. All but two are directly owned and all are within Australia.

Salsas and Cibo make up the numbers, with 18 and 22 outlets, respectively.

Adamatem hopes to roll out 15-20 stores per year across the two main brands, leveraging the platform’s existing team, systems and processes, and food and beverage know-how. Australia accounts for the bulk of revenue because economics under the master franchise agreements in foreign markets comprise only royalty fee streams. But international expansion continues.

“We’ve just launched in Cambodia and the UAE [United Arab Emirates] and we expect the Boost brand to resonate in those geographies. We’ve already seen it grow well across Southeast Asia,” Varley said. “Betty’s could go offshore as well, but it’s a bit early, there’s still a lot to do in Australia.”

Southeast Asia accounts for 242 stores in Boost Juice’s international footprint, spread across Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, and Malaysia. A further 24 are in the UK and then the likes of Chile, Estonia, Malta, New Zealand, and Saudi Arabia, as well as Brunei and Vietnam, the two smallest Southeast Asia locations, have fewer than 20 apiece.

The biggest challenge is often being relevant. “You want to make sure your brand and offering resonates with the consumer and that they are still enjoying whatever service or product you are offering,” said Varley. “We always have a strong focus on what the customer is looking for.”

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• Topics
• Australasia
• Buyouts
• Trade sale
• Consumer
• Australia
• Adamantem Capital
• Bain Capital Asia