Arby’s Restaurant Group, Inc., Atlanta, launched Inspire Brands, Inc., a new global, multi-brand restaurant company, following the completion of its acquisition of Buffalo Wild Wings, Inc., Minneapolis.

Inspire is said to be one of the largest owner-operators of restaurants with more than 1,700 company-owned restaurants. System-wide, Inspire includes more than 4,600 company-owned and franchised restaurants with more than 150,000 team members across 15 countries.

“We believe the time is right to create a different kind of restaurant company – one with a broad portfolio of distinct brands across a full spectrum of restaurant occasions,” says Paul Brown, chief executive officer of Inspire Brands. “Our goal is to build an organization that leverages the benefits of scale, not only to save cost, but also to enable outsized investments in long-term growth initiatives.”

The objective of Inspire is to build a family of powerful, distinct restaurant brands that each have high-growth potential, both domestically and internationally.

“I’m incredibly excited about the opportunity ahead,” Brown says. “Our family of brands are iconic within their restaurant segments, and have succeeded with the help of a strong franchise base, differentiated marketing, and most importantly, delicious food. I’m looking forward to accelerating their growth under our new model.” 

The Inspire headquarters will remain in Atlanta, and will operate a support center in Minneapolis. Inspire will be led by Paul Brown, chief executive officer of Arby’s, who will serve as chief executive officer of the company, and Neal Aronson, founder and managing partner of Roark, an Atlanta-based private equity firm and the majority owner of Inspire. Inspire will oversee the continued growth and success of Arby’s, Buffalo Wild Wings and an emerging brand, R Taco, while building a platform for future strategic additions.