First Watch to acquire 16 restaurants in $49M deal

Daytime dining company First Watch, based in east Manatee County, plans to acquire 16 restaurants in North Carolina and South Carolina, bringing them under corporate ownership. The deal includes 15 franchise restaurants and one under construction expected to open for business before the transaction closes.

The deal, for an aggregate purchase price of $49 million, is expected to close by mid-April 2025, according to a statement from First Watch, which operates 547 restaurants nationwide as of the third quarter. Of those, 466 are company-owned and 81 are franchise-owned.

“Strategic acquisitions of franchise-operated restaurants … continues to be an important part of our long-term growth and value creation strategy,” First Watch CEO and President Chris Tomasso says in a statement. 

First Watch reports it has acquired 45 franchised restaurants through six acquisitions in the last year and a half. One was a $75 million deal that closed in April, which included 21 restaurants and the development rights from a franchisee in the Raleigh-Durham area in North Carolina, the Business Observer previously reported.

The seller in the newly announced transaction is Good Morning Carolinas LLC (which includes Houston Pizza Venture, HPV-C LLC, FV3 LLC, Christopher Osborn, Michael White and Joseph Sea), according to a November SEC filing.

“These 16 restaurants and the corresponding development rights will help solidify corporate ownership of First Watch restaurants along the East Coast – and provide us with additional territories in which to grow organically for years to come,” says Tomasso, who recently said the company is aiming for 2,200 locations over time.

“We expect these restaurants will generate unit volumes and restaurant level operating profit margins in line with our company-owned restaurants," Tomasso adds, "and we look forward to welcoming the teams from these restaurants into our organization.”

First Watch, which anticipates funding the acquisition through cash on hand and available borrowings under the company’s credit facility, had $891.6 million in revenue in 2023.