Mergers & Acquisitions

Dallas — Dickey’s Barbecue Restaurants will open three new Dickey’s Barbecue Pits this week. On April 2, the chain will open a restaurant in Colorado Springs, Colo., and on April 3, two more restaurants will open, one in Gulfport, Miss., and another in Stockton, Calif.

At the recent Oracle Industry Connect Conference held in Boston, a number of speakers from prominent retailers including Kohl’s, Hot Topic, and C. Wonder extolled the virtues of “vanilla” implementations of enterprise systems. In this context, vanilla means implementing an enterprise platform with all or many of that vendor’s applications, minimizing customization or use of one-off “best of breed” solutions.

The nation’s largest egg producer, Cal-Maine Foods, named Wil Webb to a new role as vp of operations.

Webb will be responsible for the company’s extensive production facilities in Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi and reports to Cal-Maine COO Sherman Miller. Webb has been employed with Cal-Maine Foods since 1997 and most recently served as general manager of the company’s operations in Edwards, Mississippi.

Leading global cooler manufacturer Igloo was acquired by Washington, D.C.-based private equity firm ACON Investments from Connecticut-based private equity firm J.H. Whitney.

ACON said J.H. Whitney will continue to maintain a small, but undisclosed, stake in the company. Igloo will continue to be led by chairman and CEO Gary Kiedaisch and other members of the existing management team who are also purchasing significant interests in Igloo in connection with the transaction. The company will focus on continued growth in the outdoors, housewares and sporting goods markets.

Sidney, Neb. -- Cabela’s Inc. has renewed a variable funding facility with Royal Bank of Canada for an additional three years and the commitment under the variable funding facility has increased from $350 million to $500 million. The variable funding facility relates to an outstanding series of variable funding notes issued by Cabela’s Credit Card Master Note Trust.

Aliso Viejo, Calif. —  AUM Hospitality has opened the second Johnny Rockets restaurant in Malaysia at Avenue K in Kuala Lumpur, a 360,000-sq.-ft. retail hub. The new Johnny Rockets is the 11th restaurant in the chain to open in Southeast Asia.

In addition to the two Malaysia, the chain operates six outlets in the Philippines and three in Indonesia.

Austin, Texas -- Whole Food Market will purchase four stores from New Frontiers Natural Marketplace. The stores, which average 22,000 sq. ft., are located in Flagstaff, Prescott and Sedona, Ariz.; and San Luis Obispo, Calif. The two companies expect the transaction to be finalized in the next few weeks.

The stores will continue to operate under the New Frontiers Natural Marketplace banner until they are re-signed as Whole Foods Market stores.

New York -- Saddled with high levels of debt and sluggish sales, Brookstone Inc. is preparing to file for bankruptcy protection, with a plan already in place to be bought by another specialty retailer, the Wall Street Journal reported.