Press Release: Fired Up Inc.
April 12, 2002
AUSTIN, TX -- Fired Up Inc., the owner and operator of Johnny Carino's Country Italian restaurants and Gumbo's
Louisiana Style Cafe, announced the sale of $16,000,000 of convertible preferred stock to Rosewood Capital and
U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray.
The proceeds of this equity will be used to continue to expand company-owned Johnny Carino's restaurants by 8-10
stores a year and for the continued support associated with the 250 franchise agreements in place today.
Norman Abdallah, Co-CEO and President of Fired Up Inc. said, ``We hired U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray in December
to help us find the right financial partner that could best work with our management team, culture and our franchise
partners. The first group they introduced to us was Rosewood. We knew right away this was a long term relationship
that could add great value to us both and help Fired Up meet its strategic goals.''
``During our long history of investing in restaurant companies, we have found that a strong concept and an experienced
management team are the key determinants of success,'' said Rosewood's Managing Director, Kyle Anderson. ``Norman
Abdallah, Creed Ford and the Fired Up team are seasoned and among the best in the industry. Combined with a concept
as appealing to consumers as Johnny Carino's, we believe that Fired Up is positioned for exceptional results.''
Allan Hickok, Research Analyst with U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray said, ``We are very honored to be working with such
a high quality company that fits so precisely within our practice of working with segment defining chains. We think
that the Johnny Carino's concept is attractively positioned within the market place and has an opened-ended growth
opportunity.''
Fired Up Inc. was founded in 1997 by Creed Ford and Norman Abdallah. They currently operate and franchise 50 restaurants
including Johnny Carino's Country Italian, Gumbo's Louisiana Style Cafe and The Brown Bar in Texas, Colorado, Idaho,
Arkansas, California, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Montana and Georgia, as well as Egypt, Bahrain and Kuwait. Fired Up
Inc. currently has agreements in place to develop over 250 franchised Johnny Carino's Country Italian restaurants
in 27 states and 12 countries over the next ten years. They plan to sign 3 additional development agreements with
3 experienced operators in the next few months that call for 140 restaurants over the next 10 years.
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Contact:
Fired Up Inc., Spicewood, Texas
Norman Abdallah, 512/263-0800
nabdallah@fired-upinc.com