The fast-casual food concept Koibito Poke is expanding throughout the country and hopes to add new locations in Los Angeles County.
The Arizona-based company has announced it has signed a franchise sales agreement with True Capital Partners LLC, which has committed to sell a minimum of 300 locations in eight states over the next five years, according to a press release. The initial eight states to be included in this national expansion agreement will be North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Texas, California, Idaho, and Washington. True Capital Partners’ development schedule aims to open the first 120 stores in the next 24-30 months.
Koibito Poke was founded by former MLB pitcher and three-time World Series Champion Todd Stottlemyre in 2018. After three years, he has expanded to four locations in Arizona. After spending a year looking for the right development partner, he says he is “very pleased to engage with a group with such a proven track record for success.” Koibito Poke hopes to also expand the brand throughout Arizona, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, and Colorado.
This new initiative sets Koibito Poke with one of the nation’s most successful franchise development groups. True Capital Partners recently finished a successful 160 store expansion of a fast-casual dessert restaurant franchise and sought collaboration with a fast-growing poke dining space. True Capital Partners approached Koibito Poke because of its appeal to a large customer audience.
“We have been searching for a restaurant concept which could be a real success story and we are convinced that Koibito Poke was the absolute best-positioned brand to dominate the national space going forward,” said Adam Daniel, spokesperson for True Capital Partners, in a press release. “Our team had been searching for a dining concept that has dealt with the three huge barriers that are devasting the restaurant industry today: Labor shortages, food cost inflation, and rent [cost of location]. Koibito provided the perfect solution to all those barriers of entry and so we immediately committed our resources into development and are looking forward to massive success with Todd and his team. We’re very confident that we will attract experienced and successful franchise developers from around the country to be part of this new and exciting expansion.”
