United States Beef Corporation, Arby’s largest franchisee, has acquired 10 Arby’s restaurants from the two Arby’s franchisees operating in Central Washington and Northern Idaho. The leaders of the Arby’s franchises being bought are Richard (Rip) Riva, president of Cascade Beef Inc. and Riva Real Estate LLC, and Deana Harris, president of 3 Rivers Roast Beef. Riva was one of Arby’s pioneer franchise owners, and Harris has been in the Arby’s system since 2000.
John Davis, CEO of US Beef, said, “We’ve always had the deepest respect for Mr. Riva and Ms. Harris, and consider them to be two of the finest operators in the Arby’s system.”
Davis further stated that “One of our growth strategies is to expand contiguously, so when this opportunity presented itself, we felt Washington was an ideal fit for expanding and aligning contiguous markets to our existing footprint, since we were already in Idaho. We have a proven track record of accelerating the growth of businesses that we acquire, and can leverage our technology and training strengths. Rip Riva and Deana Harris have best-in-class people in their organization, and we wish to welcome all our new team members and associates to the US Beef family.”
Rip Riva, president of Cascade Beef and manager of Riva Real Estate, added, “Bob Davis and I were two of Arby’s pioneer franchisees of the brand. We grew up in this business together. So we couldn’t be happier to be entrusting our valued employees and loyal guests to US Beef, one of Arby’s most prestigious franchisee groups.”
Deana Harris, president of 3 Rivers Roast Beef, will remain with US Beef as an Area Director for the region.
With this acquisition US Beef now operates in the contiguous Midwest and western states of Washington, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, and Illinois. US Beef also signed an aggressive development agreement with Arby’s in 2015 to develop an additional 70 restaurants in its footprint by 2022.
Source: Franchise News