An announcement Monday morning showed that Emil Brolick, president and CEO of Wendy’s, will retire from management in May 2016. Rather than making an announcement of an executive search, Wendy’s already said that Brolick is expected to be succeeded Chief Financial Officer Todd Penegor.
Keeping a team internally has its benefits. It often means that what is being done and has been done will remain in place. After all, an outsider may want to make big changes. Another disclosure was that Penegor would transition into the replacement of Brolick starting in the first quarter of 2016.
Wendy’s did say that Brolick would continue to serve on its board of directors upon his retirement. What has occurred in an executive search is that Wendy’s is currently conducting an external search for a new CFO.
One thing that has taken place under Brolick’s current four-year tenure is that he joined Wendy’s right after the Arby’s sale. He helped with leading menu changes, led the revamping and updating of the restaurants and moved toward being a franchise model rather than a split of franchises and company-owned stores.
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The 2014 Wendy’s annual report showed up front that, as of December 28, 2014, the Wendy’s restaurant system was comprised of 6,515 restaurants. Some 957 were owned and operated by the company at that time. In 2014, the company announced a plan to sell all of its company-owned restaurants in Canada to franchisees, and in early 2015 it announced plans to sell approximately 500 additional restaurants to franchisees and to reduce its ongoing company-owned restaurant ownership to approximately 5% of the total system by the middle of 2016.
That effort took place under Brolick’s leadership. It is expected that 80% of Wendy’s earnings will come from franchisee royalty and rental fees. While Penegor has been there only since the middle of 2013, he is effectively the replacement pick by Nelson Peltz. Peltz may be more of an activist investor to most of us, even in his past efforts in Wendy’s, but Peltz is also the chairman of the board.
Here is what Wendy’s said of Penegor in relation to his internal efforts:
At Wendy’s, Penegor has been instrumental in leading some of the Company’s most successful growth initiatives of the past two years, including the Image Activation restaurant development program; System Optimization, which includes the sale of Company restaurants in the U.S. and Canada to franchisees as part of a strategy to help accelerate the brand’s expansion; the 2015 Whole Business Securitization and the Company’s several share repurchase transactions. In late 2014, Penegor also took responsibility for the Company’s International division.
Penegor’s history with the Wendy’s brand dates back to his childhood, when his father became a Wendy’s franchisee with one restaurant in Iron Mountain, Michigan. Penegor received his bachelor’s degree in accounting and an MBA in finance from Michigan State University. He is also a member of the financial advisory board of Michigan State University.
Peltz made a big turnaround in the Wendy’s share price under Brolick as CEO. The company’s dividend has risen almost 200%, and shares were close to $5 when Brolick came in (less than $5.00 if adjusting for dividends) and that stock had risen to over $11.00 earlier in 2015.
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The problem that investors face now is that shares were last trading at $8.71 before the retirement news. Wendy’s has made many changes over the past decade. Now we just have to wonder if Wendy’s new CEO will be able to milk more value or install new growth initiatives as it transitions to almost all franchises rather than a blend of store-owned operations and franchise locations.
At $8.68 after the news, Wendy’s has a 52-week range of $7.61 to $11.71 and a consensus analyst target of about $11.50.
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