Buffalo Grill facts for kids
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| Private | |
| Industry | Restaurants |
| Genre | Themed restaurant |
| Founded | 1980 |
| Founder | Christian Picart |
| Headquarters | , |
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Area served
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France, Switzerland and Spain |
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Key people
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Jocelyn Olive (Chairman], Ivan Schofield (non executive director) |
| Products | grilled meat, ribs, burgers, french fries, desserts |
| Revenue | 557M€ (2017) |
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Number of employees
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7750 (2017) |
Buffalo Grill is a popular restaurant chain from France. It's known for its American-themed steakhouses. You can usually find these restaurants in shopping areas or on the edges of cities.
It's the biggest themed restaurant chain in France. Buffalo Grill has about 360 locations. These restaurants are mostly in France, but also in Switzerland and Spain.
Buffalo Grill serves around 31 million meals every year. In 2017, their sales were over €557 million. The French people have chosen Buffalo Grill as their favorite restaurant brand three times. The most recent time was in 2018. This award came from a study where 8,500 customers picked Buffalo Grill as the best.
Contents
How Buffalo Grill Started
Buffalo Grill was created in September 1980. The founder was a person named Christian Picart. The very first restaurant opened in a town called Avrainville, in Essonne, France.
Growing the Restaurant Chain
Four years later, Christian Picart opened a second restaurant in France. Soon after, the first Buffalo Grill that was owned by someone else (a franchise) opened in Annecy.
Through the 1980s and 1990s, the chain kept growing across France. People liked its special menu. By the end of 1995, there were over 140 Buffalo Grill restaurants. About 38 of these were franchises.
Expanding to Other Countries
In 1997, Buffalo Grill opened three restaurants in Belgium. They also opened one in Madrid, Spain. More restaurants followed in Spain, and two opened in Luxembourg. One also opened in Switzerland. In 1999, the company became public. This meant its shares could be bought and sold on the Paris Stock Exchange.
Changes in Ownership
In 2005, the company was sold to a group called Colony Capital. They bought most of the company. Three years later, Buffalo Grill was sold again. This time, it was bought by Abenex & Nixen Partners.
In 2017, another investment group, TDR Capital LLP, bought the company. This deal was worth about €400 million.
As of July 2019, Buffalo Grill had 360 restaurants. About 100 of these were franchises. The company also had over 5,000 employees. The last restaurant in Luxembourg closed in 2020.
How Buffalo Grill Works
Most Buffalo Grill restaurants are owned by the company itself. About two-thirds of them are company-owned. The rest are run by people who bought a franchise. This means they pay to use the Buffalo Grill name and system.
The main office for Buffalo Grill is in Montrouge, France. In April 2018, two people started leading the company. Their names are Ivan Schofield and Jocelyn Olive. Ivan Schofield is a non-executive director, and Jocelyn Olive is the chairman.
| Country | Number of restaurants |
|---|---|
| France | 351 |
| Spain | 6 |
| Switzerland | 1 |
