{"id":19173,"date":"2026-09-02T02:12:25","date_gmt":"2026-09-02T02:12:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/19173\/"},"modified":"2026-09-02T02:12:25","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T02:12:25","slug":"popular-korean-bbq-chain-may-be-sold-for-100-million-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/19173\/","title":{"rendered":"Popular Korean BBQ chain may be sold for $100 million"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>    <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/ywAAAAAAQABAAACAUwAOw==\" alt=\"\" height=\"720\" width=\"960\" class=\"yf-1f8hkhu loader\"\/>          <\/p>\n<p class=\"text text-block paragraph text-left neo-font-paragraph-xl-reg  yf-18d6y07\" style=\"text-decoration: none; font-style: normal; text-transform: none; text-align: inherit; font-variant-numeric: normal;\">A restaurant group is considering selling its 54 Korean BBQ locations for about $100 million.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"text text-block paragraph text-left neo-font-paragraph-xl-reg  yf-18d6y07\" style=\"text-decoration: none; font-style: normal; text-transform: none; text-align: inherit; font-variant-numeric: normal;\">GEN Restaurant Group, Inc., which also is involved in consumer-packaged goods, announced Monday that it received an offer from a nationwide restaurant operator to acquire its US restaurant operations.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"text text-block paragraph text-left neo-font-paragraph-xl-reg  yf-18d6y07\" style=\"text-decoration: none; font-style: normal; text-transform: none; text-align: inherit; font-variant-numeric: normal;\">The name of the buyer was not revealed but GEN appears to be seriously considering the proposal, which would shift the company&#8217;s focus from restaurants to packaged goods and retail.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"text text-block paragraph text-left neo-font-paragraph-xl-reg  yf-18d6y07\" style=\"text-decoration: none; font-style: normal; text-transform: none; text-align: inherit; font-variant-numeric: normal;\">&#8220;Receiving this proposal is a testament to the GEN brand and the value we have already built,&#8221; said David Kim, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of GEN.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"text text-block paragraph text-left neo-font-paragraph-xl-reg  yf-18d6y07\" style=\"text-decoration: none; font-style: normal; text-transform: none; text-align: inherit; font-variant-numeric: normal;\">&#8220;Our Board of Directors, together with our financial and legal advisors, will carefully review and evaluate the proposal to determine the path that is in the best interests of the company and all its shareholders. We believe a transaction of this nature could make strategic sense.&#8221;  <\/p>\n<p class=\"text text-block paragraph text-left neo-font-paragraph-xl-reg  yf-18d6y07\" style=\"text-decoration: none; font-style: normal; text-transform: none; text-align: inherit; font-variant-numeric: normal;\">GEN leadership says the sale would monetize its restaurant operations while eliminating long-term liabilities tied to the restaurant industry. Focusing GEN entirely on packaged goods, where revenue growth is accelerating rapidly, also requires less capital than restaurant expansion, Kim said.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"text text-block paragraph text-left neo-font-paragraph-xl-reg  yf-18d6y07\" style=\"text-decoration: none; font-style: normal; text-transform: none; text-align: inherit; font-variant-numeric: normal;\">Gen&#8217;s products are sold through several retailers including Albertsons, Stater Brothers, Smart &amp; Final, Save Mart, BevMo and regionally at Costco. The company has made proposals to BJ&#8217;s Wholesale Club, Walmart, cruise lines and wholesalers like Sysco&#8217;s.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"text text-block paragraph text-left neo-font-paragraph-xl-reg  yf-18d6y07\" style=\"text-decoration: none; font-style: normal; text-transform: none; text-align: inherit; font-variant-numeric: normal;\">MORE BY BRANDON CHAMPION  <\/p>\n<p class=\"text text-block paragraph text-left neo-font-paragraph-xl-reg  yf-18d6y07\" style=\"text-decoration: none; font-style: normal; text-transform: none; text-align: inherit; font-variant-numeric: normal;\">McDonald&#8217;s to offer energy drinks for first timeAug. 11, 2026, 10:36 a.m.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"text text-block paragraph text-left neo-font-paragraph-xl-reg  yf-18d6y07\" style=\"text-decoration: none; font-style: normal; text-transform: none; text-align: inherit; font-variant-numeric: normal;\">Popular restaurant chain&#8217;s new deal gets you 2 entr\u00e9es, sides, dessert for $18Aug. 10, 2026, 4:07 p.m.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"text text-block paragraph text-left neo-font-paragraph-xl-reg  yf-18d6y07\" style=\"text-decoration: none; font-style: normal; text-transform: none; text-align: inherit; font-variant-numeric: normal;\">&#8220;We believe that positions us well for the future,&#8221; he said. &#8220;The early response from the retail and other grocery customers has been significant, and we believe it gives GEN a compelling position in the category. We are also strengthening the organization around this. A transaction like this could allow us to dedicate our resources fully to the (CPG) business while strengthening our balance sheet through the sale of our restaurants.&#8221;  <\/p>\n<p class=\"text text-block paragraph text-left neo-font-paragraph-xl-reg  yf-18d6y07\" style=\"text-decoration: none; font-style: normal; text-transform: none; text-align: inherit; font-variant-numeric: normal;\">By the end of 2026, GEN is projected to have products in 1,500 to 2,000 locations across the United States. The company is estimating $35-$40 million in revenue over the next 12 months.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"text text-block paragraph text-left neo-font-paragraph-xl-reg  yf-18d6y07\" style=\"text-decoration: none; font-style: normal; text-transform: none; text-align: inherit; font-variant-numeric: normal;\">Founded in 2011 by two Korean immigrants in Los Angeles, GEN&#8217;s locations utilize the interactive &#8220;grill at your table&#8221; format and feature an extensive menu of traditional Korean-inspired dishes.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"text text-block paragraph text-left neo-font-paragraph-xl-reg  yf-18d6y07\" style=\"text-decoration: none; font-style: normal; text-transform: none; text-align: inherit; font-variant-numeric: normal;\">Read the original article on mlive.com. Add mlive.com as a Preferred Source by clicking here.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A restaurant group is considering selling its 54 Korean BBQ locations for about $100 million. GEN Restaurant Group, Inc., which also is involved in consumer-packaged goods, announced Monday that it received an offer from a nationwide restaurant operator to acquire its US restaurant operations. The name of the buyer was not revealed but GEN appears<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19174,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[263],"tags":[3248,3245,1721,853,456,457],"class_list":["post-19173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-korean-restaurants","tag-gen","tag-gen-restaurant-group","tag-inc","tag-korean-bbq","tag-korean-restaurant","tag-korean-restaurants"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/vive.im\/@dnc\/117199023895950700","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19173"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19173\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}