Carrols acquires 21 Burger King locations in Rochester, Southern Tier areas

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Carrols Restaurant Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: TAST) today announced it has signed an agreement to purchase 21 Burger King restaurants from the Rochester–based Kessler Group, Inc.

The restaurants are located in or around Rochester and in the Southern Tier region of Western New York, Carrols said in the news release.

The company didn’t release details about the purchase price or elaborate on specific restaurant locations in its news release.

Carrols expects the transaction, which is subject to customary closing conditions, to close by the end of July.

Carrols Restaurant Group is the largest Burger King franchisee in the world with 564 restaurants as of June 30. And, the firm continues to expand and increase its ownership of Burger King restaurants.

Carrols recently completed the acquisition of a total of eight such restaurants in two separate transactions. Carrols on June 30 completed the purchase of four Burger King restaurants in the Pittsburgh market. The firm previously announced it had also closed on the acquisition of four Burger King restaurants in Fort Wayne, Ind. on April 30.

Carrols earlier this year completed a public offering of common stock to “position us for opportunities such as these,” Daniel Accordino, the company’s CEO, said in the news release.

“Carrols has a track record of improving the operations and profitability of restaurants it has acquired and we believe we will enhance shareholder value as we execute our strategy to further expand our ownership within the Burger King system. We expect to make additional announcements of this nature in the future,” said Accordino.

Carrols, which is headquartered at 968 James St. in Syracuse, has operated Burger King restaurants since 1976.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com