Queen Shirley

Your client is Burger Queen, a fast food restaurant that competes directly with similar restaurants such as McDonalds, Taco Bell, KFC, Wendy’s, etc. It’s the fifth largest fast food chain globally if measured by numbers of stores. BQ serves meals during breakfast, lunch and dinner. It operates under a franchisee model with 90% of its stores being owned by the franchisee (individuals own the store but pay franchisee fee to BQ and BQ makes major business decisions). BQ wants to grow rapidly and have learned that inorganic growth through an acquisition is best for them. One of their acquisition targets is Shirley’s Donuts, a regional donut chain that operates predominantly in the United States. Shirley’s operates differently than BQ since instead of giving each franchisee one store, each franchisee operates a designated area. BQ’s CEO has hired you to advise him on whether they should acquire Shirley’s or not.