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Flat Top Grill parent lands $12 million in growth funding
May 11, 2010
Chicago-based Flat Out Crazy Restaurant Group, the parent company of Stir Crazy Fresh Asian Grill and FlatTop Grill restaurants, has completed a $3 million Senior Revolving Credit Facility by U.S. Bank and a $5 million Mezzanine Growth Loan by The HillStreet Fund IV. These figures add to the $4 million in equity raised with the August 2009 merger of the two Asian restaurants that formed Flat Out Crazy.
The $12 million in new loans and equity will provide the funding and working capital to open a combined 15 new units through 2011. The next two years also will mark the westward expansion into Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, Texas and Nevada, as well as its continued focus to develop in the Midwest and East. The company currently operates a combined 28 restaurants in Florida, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio, Wisconsin and New York.
Stir Crazy, the group's full-service casual destination, combined with fast casual FlatTop Grill, delivers revenues in excess of $60 million per year, according to a news release about the funding.
"The $12 million in loans and equity that have been raised by Flat Out Crazy demonstrates the strength of our restaurant brands and the confidence our financial institutions and equity partners have in the company and our team," said Frederic H. Mayerson, chairman and CEO of Flat Out Crazy Restaurant Group. "With the purchase of Stir Crazy at the end of 2006 and then the acquisition of FlatTop Grill in mid-2009, we are a stronger and more profitable entity, which now affords us the opportunity to continue our national expansion."
Flat Out Crazy's executive team is led by president and COO Greg Carey and CFO Matt Wilber.
Both Stir Crazy and FlatTop Grill were founded in Chicago in 1995. The Walnut Group, a private-equity firm located in Cincinnati, purchased Stir Crazy at the end of 2006. At the end of August 2009, Stir Crazy acquired FlatTop Grill to form Flat Out Crazy.
"This coming together of two great Asian restaurants has been as good of a marriage as we had hoped it would be," Carey said. "Since 2007, we have opened eight new Stir Crazy and FlatTop Grill locations. In less than two years we see our total number of locations jumping ahead 50 percent as Stir Crazy and FlatTop Grill become leaders in the growth of the Asian food segment of the restaurant industry."
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