I see a lot of opportunity to dominate this segment in Utah.
Since we last covered Four Foods Group and their astonishing $35M in funding, the company announced an acquisition and partnership with R&R Barbeque, which is good news for those of us who enjoy eating.
Rod and Roger Livingston, owners of R&R, know how to make good food. The pair holds nine BBQ championships from regional and national competitions. “Barbecue is hard to get right,” says FFG CEO Andrew Smith. “When it’s right, it’s right.” And R&R is right, as evidenced by the constant line at their downtown location. Smith was an R&R customer for a year before he considered partnering with the Livingston brothers. “I see a lot of opportunity to dominate this segment in Utah,” Smith says. “There is no one that is a leader in this segment. We will be in the next 2 years.”
“This [partnership] gives us the opportunity to expand our brand,” says Roger Livingston. “It takes a lot of pressure off Rodney and I.” Roger and Rod look forward to being in their stores, speaking with customers, controlling their growth and maintaining the quality of their excellent food while FFG takes over operations. “We are going to utilize our Four Foods Group development, construction, operations, facility management, HR, recruiting, training, and finance teams to implement systems and processes that will set up R&R BBQ to be duplicated,” Smith says. “With our proven success of duplication, we are going to spend the next 2.5 months to organize and fine tune the current systems to be duplicated in a way that quality, comfort, vibe and overall culture of the R&R BBQ restaurants in each of the new restaurants we build.”
Livingston says that while maintaining the quality of food is their top priority, they believe FFG will help them grow to ten, twenty, or even thirty stores. “We are going to utilize several million dollars this year and next to open stores 3&4 in Utah and Salt Lake County. We are also looking at adding stores 5–8 throughout Davis and Salt Lake Counties. We see a total of 12–14 stores throughout the Utah market in the next 3–4 years,” Smith says. “We will be implementing the FFG partnership model for all future locations we develop. It is a winning model.”
