Vancouver-based fast-food chain Burgerville announced Friday it had struck a deal with a group of local investors to help open several new restaurant locations across the Pacific Northwest.
The group of new investors includes Burgerville CEO Ed Casey and former Dutch Bros CEO Joth Ricci. The deal is expected to close on Monday.
The Mears family, Burgerville’s founders, will remain shareholders in the company. Although the company declined to share any dollar figures or other details of the deal, a Burgerville representative said no one investor will have a majority share in the company.
“Burgerville’s mission has always been to serve our local communities with love, and in recent years, our strategy has been to prepare to grow across the Northwest,” Casey said in the Friday announcement. “To do that, the Mears family and I wanted to team up with local partners who share our values and vision for Burgerville — and that’s just what we found.”
Casey will continue as the company’s CEO and Ricci will join as its executive chairman.
“Burgerville was a pioneer in sustainability and local long before those were industry buzzwords,” Ricci said in the news release. “I’m excited to be able to play a role in the next leg of the Burgerville journey.”
The announcement comes just days after the company said it was seeking new investors for expansion. Willamette Week had previously reported that Burgerville was nearing a possible deal with a Portland investment company connected to Bamboo Sushi, Sizzle Pie and Water Avenue Coffee.
Burgerville has been locally owned since its first restaurant opened in Vancouver in 1961. Today, the company has 39 locations in the region between Centralia and Corvallis, Ore. The company is set to open a 40th location in Wilsonville, Ore., in June.
In the coming year, the company plans to open restaurants in Salem and Keizer, followed by expansion north and east of its store in Centralia, according to the news release. The chain has at least six more restaurants and as many as 10 planned over the next year in the Pacific Northwest.
