Company Description
FAT Brands Inc. (NASDAQ: FAT) is a restaurant company that focuses on global franchising across multiple dining formats. The business model centers on acquiring, marketing, and developing fast casual, quick-service, casual dining, and polished casual dining restaurant concepts around the world. According to company disclosures, FAT Brands franchises and owns a large system of restaurant units under a portfolio of well-known brands.
The company describes itself under the banner FAT (Fresh. Authentic. Tasty.) Brands and operates primarily as a franchisor. It generates revenue from royalties, franchise fees, restaurant sales at company-owned locations, advertising fees, and factory revenues tied to its dough manufacturing operations, as reflected in its reported revenue categories. FAT Brands states that it franchises and owns approximately or over 2,300 restaurant units worldwide across its brand portfolio.
Brand portfolio and restaurant concepts
FAT Brands reports that it owns 18 restaurant brands. Across its news releases and SEC filings, the company lists the following concepts as part of its portfolio:
- Round Table Pizza
- Fatburger
- Marble Slab Creamery
- Johnny Rockets
- Fazoli’s
- Twin Peaks
- Great American Cookies
- Smokey Bones
- Hot Dog on a Stick
- Buffalo’s Cafe & Express
- Hurricane Grill & Wings
- Pretzelmaker
- Elevation Burger
- Native Grill & Wings
- Yalla Mediterranean
- Ponderosa and Bonanza Steakhouses
These brands span multiple categories, including pizza, burgers, ice cream, cookies and baked goods, Italian quick-service, sports lodges, wings, pretzels, and steakhouse concepts. FAT Brands notes that some of these brands have multi-decade operating histories and international footprints under their own names, while remaining part of the broader FAT Brands system.
Franchising-focused business model
FAT Brands characterizes itself as a global franchising company that strategically acquires, markets, and develops restaurant concepts. The company’s disclosures indicate that it operates through a mix of franchised locations and company-owned restaurants. In its financial reporting, FAT Brands breaks out revenue from royalties, franchise fees, restaurant sales, advertising fees, and factory revenues, underscoring the importance of franchising and brand systems to its business model.
The company also references co-branding initiatives within its system, such as dual-branded restaurants that combine concepts like Round Table Pizza and Fatburger, or Fatburger and Buffalo’s Express. Management has highlighted co-branding as an area of development within its restaurant network.
Scale and system-wide operations
In multiple public communications, FAT Brands states that it franchises and owns over 2,300 units worldwide. These units are distributed across its 18 brands and include both franchised and company-operated restaurants. The company also refers to system-wide sales and system-wide same-store sales as key metrics, reflecting performance across all stores in its brands when owned by FAT Brands.
FAT Brands describes its system in terms of new store openings, same-store sales growth, and system-wide sales growth, and it tracks the number of new restaurants opened in each reporting period. The company’s disclosures also reference a pipeline of committed locations and co-branded units under development.
Financial reporting and capital structure
FAT Brands files regular reports with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including Form 10-K annual reports, Form 10-Q quarterly reports, and Form 8-K current reports. In its third quarter 2025 financial results, the company reported revenue split among royalties, restaurant sales, advertising fees, factory revenues, franchise fees, and other revenue.
The company also discloses that it has used whole business securitization structures through special purpose financing subsidiaries such as FAT Brands Royalty I, LLC, FAT Brands GFG Royalty I, LLC, FAT Brands Fazoli’s Native I, LLC, Twin Hospitality I, LLC, and FB Resid Holdings I, LLC. These entities issued fixed rate secured notes backed by certain cash flows from the FAT Brands system. Recent Form 8-K filings describe events of default and acceleration notices related to these securitization notes, as well as potential impacts on the company’s business, financial condition, and liquidity.
In its communications, FAT Brands also discusses EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA, and adjusted net loss as non-GAAP measures, explaining how these metrics are derived from net loss and why management uses them to evaluate operating performance.
Corporate governance and shareholder matters
FAT Brands is incorporated in Delaware and files a Definitive Proxy Statement (DEF 14A) describing its annual meeting of stockholders, director elections, advisory votes on executive compensation, and ratification of its independent registered public accounting firm. The proxy materials outline voting rights for holders of Class A Common Stock and Class B Common Stock and describe the structure of the company’s board of directors and governance practices.
The company has also reported the resolution of derivative actions filed in the Delaware Court of Chancery relating to a prior merger and recapitalization. According to an 8-K filing, a settlement agreement provides for corporate governance modifications, an insurance-funded payment to the company (net of plaintiffs’ counsel fees and expenses), and a contribution of shares of Twin Hospitality Group Inc. to FAT Brands, subject to court approval.
Trading information and securities
FAT Brands Inc. lists multiple classes of securities on The Nasdaq Stock Market. Its Class A Common Stock trades under the symbol FAT. The company also lists Class B Common Stock under the symbol FATBB and Series B Cumulative Preferred Stock under the symbol FATBP. These listings are disclosed in the company’s Form 8-K and proxy statement filings.
Risk and restructuring disclosures
Recent Form 8-K filings describe events of default and accelerations under various securitization indentures and notes, including FB Resid Notes and other securitization notes. The company reports that it and certain subsidiaries do not have amounts on hand to pay the accelerated principal and interest, and that such accelerations or any subsequent foreclosures may materially and adversely affect its business, financial condition, and liquidity. The filings also state that these developments could cause the company and/or its subsidiaries to seek to reorganize through a bankruptcy proceeding.
FAT Brands further discloses that it has been in discussions with noteholder representatives regarding potential refinancing, restructuring, or similar transactions and that it entered into a confidentiality agreement with certain holders of notes issued by its special purpose financing subsidiaries and Twin Hospitality Group Inc. The company notes that no agreement has been reached with those holders at the time of the filings.
Position within the food service and restaurant sector
Within the broader accommodation and food services sector, FAT Brands positions itself as a multi-brand restaurant franchising company with a focus on franchised operations and brand development. Its portfolio covers several dining categories, and its system-wide footprint includes thousands of units worldwide. The company’s disclosures emphasize franchising, brand acquisition, co-branding formats, and the use of securitized financing structures tied to royalty and related cash flows.