Retail Zoo

Retail Zoo is an Australian company. It is the owner of multiple major restaurant chains, including Boost Juice, Betty’s Burgers and Salsa's Fresh Mex Grill.^[1] It also owned Cibo Espresso prior to that chain's sale in 2024.^[2]

Retail Zoo

Company type	Private
Industry	Fast food
Founded	2000
Founder	Janine and Jeff Allis
Revenue	$178 million (2022)
Net income	$15 million (2022)
Parent	Adamantem Capital

It is a private company valued at around half a billion dollars.^[3] The company has explored a public listing on at least two occasions, first exploring and then putting on pause the idea in 2019; before resuming its pursuit of an IPO again in 2022.^[3] In February 2023, Australian private equity firm Adamantem Capital acquired a majority stake in the company for $350 million.^[4][5]

History

Retail Zoo was founded by Janine and Jeff Allis in 2000.^[6] A majority stake was later sold to private equity investor Riverside Company. In 2014 Riverside's shareholding was purchased by Bain Capital.^[7][8] During this time, it explored a public listing on the ASX in 2019, but the listing ultimately didn't go ahead that year; and remained owned by Bain.^{[9][10][11][12]} In 2022 the company lodged documents with the Australian Securities & Investments Commission to change its status to a public company.^[1] However, it was later acquired by Australian private equity firm Adamantem Capital following a $225m capital raise through debt syndication by the Commonwealth Bank.^[13]

Its reported valuation history is as follows:

Date	$Valuation	Source
2014	majority stake = $185m	SmartCompany[5]
Oct, 2019	$482m	Goldman Sachs estimate (sponsor-broker)[14]
Apr, 2022	$400m	AFR estimate[3]
Feb, 2023	majority stake = $350m	SmartCompany[5]