One day after acquiring the 26-unit McBR Management Co. from longtime owner Charlie Valluzzo and two of his sons, Lafayette-based franchise owner Chris Krampe says he and his brother, E.J. Krampe, are excited to be in the Baton Rouge market with a company that’s more than twice as big as it was at this time on Monday.
With the acquisition, the Krampes’ McDonald’s of Acadiana, which had 20 restaurants, now has 46 locations from southwest Louisiana to Laplace and more than 2,600 employees.
Before the acquisition, McDonald’s of Acadiana had revenues of some $44 million. Now, Krampe estimates they will top $100 million.
“Baton Rouge is a strong market, very strong in the fast food category,” he says. “We see this as an opportunity to continue to grow.”
Krampe says his company had been looking to expand for some time and had approached other franchise groups in the region about selling.
Late last year, they began talking to the Valluzzos, whom they’d known as colleagues and family friends for four decades. Their late father, Edward Krampe, started the Lafayette franchise group in 1972.
“Mr. Charlie was one of dad’s first friends in the McDonald’s world,” Krampe says. “We went on trips together. We vacationed together and we talk to them all the time, so this just kind of came about. They didn’t want to leave their legacy to just anybody and we operate in the same way they do, so it worked out great.”
Financial terms of the deal, which took between four and six months to negotiate, were not disclosed—but Krampe says “it was a lot.” The deal was financed through conventional bank loans.
McDonald’s employees and customers likely will not notice any changes under the new ownership. The Krampes will continue the capital improvement plan the Valluzzos had begun at their restaurants, and almost all of the Valluzzos former employees have been retained.
The company has opened a new office and warehouse, however, on Office Park Boulevard and will be relocating from the Valluzzo property on Choctaw Drive.
The deal does not affect Valluzzo Companies, which is owned by Charlie Valluzzo’s oldest son, John Valluzzo, who split off from McBR Management in 2011 to form his own company. At the time of the split, John Valluzzo took 30 restaurants with him. In the years since, he has grown his company to some 50 McDonald’s restaurants in a territory that stretches from Port Allen to Poplarville, Mississippi.
Krampe says he doesn’t see Valluzzo Companies’ restaurants as competition but as colleagues.
“We work closely with them and have always tried to be on the same page,” he says.
