Noble Roman’s (NROM) is a $37 million market cap franchisor of take-and-bake subs and pizza shops and fast service restaurants within stores. Founded in the early 70s at Indiana University, the company is now under activist pressure.
The key activist is Red Alder, managing about $200 million. Privet Fund is also involved here. Adler went active in April and owns 6.9%, Privet owns 14.5%.
Red Adler has been on the board since earlier this year.
The take-and-bake model hasn’t been all that fruitful and lagging of late. Yet, the company is seeing some success with take-and-bakes in grocery stores – a business that’s about a third of the company’s business. The goal is to juice that business and get it up to over half. It just introduced a standalone franchise model last year. So they’re on an interesting path to turnaround a near 50-year-old company – already generating five-year highs on the revenue and earnings side.
Will the company finally get over $2 a share? Adler’s pushing for a debt renegotiation that will allow the company to put into place an aggressive buyback plan. The company also has a lot of new blood on the board.
