Private equity firm Catterton Partners has made an investment in PIADA Italian Street Food, a fast-casual Italian eatery based in Columbus, Ohio with restaurants in Ohio and Indiana.
Terms of the transaction have not been disclosed.
PIADA currently has 14 locations across the Midwest, with six planned to open by the end of 2013. In 2013, PIADA was named one of Nation’s Restaurant News’ five "Hot Concepts" as well as one of Nation’s Restaurant News’ top 50 breakout brands.
"We are excited to enter into this strategic partnership with Catterton, which has extensive expertise in developing restaurants and expanding brands," says Chris Doody, founder and chief executive of PIADA. "We are confident that PIADA’s fresh ingredients, innovative menu and customisable options will translate well to new markets throughout the US and beyond. With Catterton’s support, we look forward to the continued evolution of our growth strategy as we pursue our goal of building the leading fast-casual Italian restaurant company in the country."
"We believe PIADA will be one of the great success stories in fast-casual dining," says Scott A Dahnke, co-managing partner of Catterton Partners. "PIADA is the leading player in the Italian fast-casual space and fits squarely within our investment strategy of finding top companies in great categories. We have a long history of partnering with exceptionally well positioned restaurant concepts such as Noodles & Company, Mendocino Farms, PF Chang’s, Baja Fresh, Bloomin’ Brands, Primanti Brothers, Cheddar’s, and First Watch, and believe that our extensive experience makes Catterton the ideal partner for PIADA."
Catterton Partners recently closed its seventh buyout fund, Catterton Partners VII, as well as its second growth fund, Catterton Growth Partners II. With the closing of these two funds, which include a combined USD2.1bn of limited and general partner commitments, Catterton now has over USD4.0bn under active management focused on growing well-positioned consumer companies.
PIADA was advised in its exclusive discussions with Catterton by Piper Jaffray and legal counsel Kegler, Brown, Hill & Ritter. Catterton was represented by Finn Dixon & Herling.
