When Wingstop UK co-founders Tom Grogan, Herman Sahota and Saul Lewin launched the business’s UK franchise, they had no experience of running restaurants. Yet in just a few years, the trio had built the fried chicken brand into one of the nation’s fastest-growing restaurant chains, enabling them to sell a majority stake in the business to US private equity investor, Sixth Street.
“We’d always set out a business plan for a five-year exit, so we were driven towards that goal,” says Grogan. “Naturally, it took a little bit longer, so we eventually exited after about seven years.”
The trio started to prepare for the exit event once the business had passed a number of key inflection points, including increased store numbers, revenue milestones and solid brand popularity.
Once we had that market momentum, potential buyers started to take notice
“Our preparation for an exit really accelerated once we hit about 40 stores across the UK and demonstrated profitability with turnover doubling year on year,” Grogan says. “Once we had that market momentum, potential buyers started to take notice. We saw that as the right time to explore liquidity and future growth potential, and went through the process of interviewing and selecting an investment bank to advise us.”
The bank they selected helped the trio assess the different exit options available to them based on the business’s ownership structure and market landscape.
“After that process, we felt that we had two potential exit routes, one being a trade buyer and one being a private equity investor,” says Grogan. “A trade sale meant a clean break, but it also risked potentially losing our culture and our autonomy, so we ended up ultimately selling a majority stake of the business to Sixth Street.”
That deal meant the founders were able to strike a balance between securing capital to finance the company’s next stage of growth, while still being able to hold a minority stake in the business. Grogan says they relied on the credibility and track record of their banker to attract prospective buyers for the business.
“A lot of this is proactive reach out on the banker’s behalf, and ultimately it’s down to the investment bank to pace and sequence those meetings and run a streamlined sales process over six to nine months,” he says.
When it came to presenting the business to potential buyers, the trio’s pitching strategy was built around a clear, data-driven narrative.
“We developed the market research, and we highlighted our financial performance and communicated our demographic, especially within youth culture,” Sahota says. “We learned that a scalable expansion plan was essential for engaging high-profile investors to the business.”
Part of the sales preparation involved carrying out financial due diligence and building a data warehouse with live and accurate financial performance information to track key performance indicators.
“There was probably about six to nine months of work that went into preparing the business for a sale,” says Grogan.
In addition, the team took steps to bolster and expand the company’s C-suite ahead of the transaction and formalise governance to ensure business continuity.
“It was important that potential buyers could see that the business was able to run and grow independently, so mission plans and board development became a key priority for us during the sale process,” says Sahota.
A challenge that founders often face is the emotional agony of relinquishing control of something they have grown and nurtured intensely.
“We built Wingstop UK from scratch without any experience in hospitality and letting go meant worrying about whether the culture that we built and the brand that we developed alongside nearly 3,000 staff would be protected,” says Grogan.
Fortunately, the majority of prospective bidders for the business wanted to ensure that our vision remained central to future expansion
This meant being confident that whoever they sold the company to would be the best custodian for the business.
“Fortunately, the majority of prospective bidders for the business wanted to ensure that our vision remained central to future expansion,” says Grogan.
To safeguard that vision, the trio embedded their value principles and culture into the business through several workplace practices, including standards for new staff members, product quality, training and customer experience.
“This was to ensure that our ethos and values live on through the expansion,” says Sahota.
By selling a majority stake in the business, the trio no longer have any formal commitments to the business but they are on hand to advise the management team if needed.
“The transition from day-to-day decision-making to more of an advisory capacity was a big change, but we’re fully confident the management team we have in place will be able to execute the strategy,” Sahota says.
One of the key takeaways from their experience was just how intense the exit process can be.
“There’s a lot of meetings and a lot of due diligence while you’re still trying to run the day-to-day business, so you need to be resilient through the process and stick to what you want to achieve because there will be people who will drop out,” says Sahota.
While the process can be fraught with uncertainty, ultimately the end result is worth the ups and downs, says Grogan.
“It’s an emotional rollercoaster – there are big highs and big lows, but you should try and enjoy it, because there’s no better feeling really once the dust has settled than realising what one has achieved,” he says.
Selling a business can be a challenging and emotional time for founders and management teams. Whether going for a full sale or just a partial exit, understanding the nuances of the exit process can sometimes be the difference between securing a successful deal or the transaction falling short of expectations. Below are five important steps in the process.
Deciding on an exit strategy
The best exit route for founders will be influenced by various factors, says Morris. These include the company’s growth trajectory and its performance relative to the market in which it operates, but most importantly it depends on the objectives of the company’s shareholders and management team.
“These objectives will likely be driven by the amount of desired liquidity versus the ongoing ownership stake, and the ability to participate in any future upsides,” says Morris. “Entrepreneurs should consider which type of exit will best meet their objectives, and their adviser will be responsible for designing a transaction process that will deliver the best outcome.”
Of course, in some cases, objectives can shift during the transaction process as valuations and potential terms become clearer, which might mean exploring different exit routes in parallel, Morris adds.
Overcoming exit challenges
According to the EY Private Equity Exit Readiness Survey 2025, one of the biggest exit challenges business sellers face is fully capturing value creation initiatives – an issue cited by 65% of respondents. Morris says this is sometimes because owners struggle to demonstrate to buyers or investors the tangible impact of initiatives they believe will fuel future growth.
“Often value creation plans, such as go-to-market restructure, digital transformation or operational improvement, are not backed by clear metrics or integrated into financial forecasts,” Morris says. “Ensuring that evidence of value creation is measured and documented in KPIs throughout the entire change process can often be key to convincing buyers of a company’s full potential.”
This means sellers need to provide potential acquirers or investors with the ability to interrogate data through analytics while retaining appropriate confidentiality and IP protection, Morris says.
Data is key to success
Due to the need to give prospective buyers clear visibility into the business, having the right level of data granularity is critical to the transaction process and one of the strongest predictors of exit success, according to Morris.
“Businesses should ensure their financial, operational and customer data is accurate, easily accessible and consistent across systems, with a strong bank of historical data,” Morris says. “Building a data framework that supports real-time insights well ahead of process launch not only streamlines due diligence but also strengthens decision-making well before the sales process begins.”
Getting management on board
In situations where valuation targets have not been met, 66% of respondents in EY’s survey said they wished they had given greater focus to preparing their management teams for the exit process.
“A well-prepared, engaged and motivated management team can articulate a clear growth story and future vision for the business, backed by robust data and a shared understanding of strategic priorities,” says Morris. “In contrast, unprepared teams often face alignment challenges, inconsistent messaging during due diligence and difficulties with answering buyer questions with confidence.”
For founders, investing early in management readiness with appropriate incentivisation structures in place can help to maintain focus throughout the exit process, he says. It is also important to reassure key individuals by providing clarity on future roles, while also ensuring succession plans are in place well ahead of a transaction.
Optimising the exit process
To have the best opportunity to secure the highest valuation possible, early preparation and engagement with potential buyers or investors is essential.
“This includes identifying potential deal breakers, stress-testing financial assumptions and addressing governance or tax issues well ahead of market engagement,” says Morris.
“Common pitfalls often include getting the process launch timing wrong, missing budgets or key customer renewals and underestimating the time required for due diligence. A lack of alignment on deal objectives and failing to communicate a clear, data-backed growth story can also undermine the process.”
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When Wingstop UK co-founders Tom Grogan, Herman Sahota and Saul Lewin launched the business’s UK franchise, they had no experience of running restaurants. Yet in just a few years, the trio had built the fried chicken brand into one of the nation’s fastest-growing restaurant chains, enabling them to sell a majority stake in the business to US private equity investor, Sixth Street.
“We’d always set out a business plan for a five-year exit, so we were driven towards that goal,” says Grogan. “Naturally, it took a little bit longer, so we eventually exited after about seven years.”
The trio started to prepare for the exit event once the business had passed a number of key inflection points, including increased store numbers, revenue milestones and solid brand popularity.
