Shake Shack, the burger chain started in New York City by restaurateur Danny Meyer, filed for an initial public offering Monday.
The chain calls itself the modern day “roadside” burger stand and operates 63 Shake Shacks around the world, including locations in London and Dubai. About half of those locations are company-owned and the remaining are franchised operations.
Last year the company brought in $82.5 million, and is on track to grow total revenues even further in 2014. Its same store sales growth was 5.9% last year, down from 7.1% in 2012.
The burger joint is aiming for an offering that could value it as high as $1 billion, according to previous reports. It has applied to list its common stock on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “SHAK.”
Meyer, who opened the first Shake Shack from a hotdog cart in 2001, is the chairman of the board and also serves as CEO of Union Square Hospitality Group, which oversees some of New York City’s top restaurants including Gramercy Tavern and Union Square Cafe.
J.P. Morgan, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs are among the major underwriters for the IPO, according to Shake Shack’s preliminary prospectus.
Shake Shack opened 8 new domestic company-operated restaurants in fiscal 2013, and 10 domestic company-operated restaurants, and 12 international licensed restaurants, in fiscal 2014, the company said its filing.
Interestingly, the company cited “security breaches of confidential guest information, in connection with our electronic processing of credit and debit card transactions,” as a risk factor to the company as it expands.
A series of high-profile corporate security breaches at major retailers such as Home Depot, Staples and Target have left millions of customers’ credit card information exposed.
—Reuters contributed to this report.
