What Restaurant Leaders Must Get Right About Integrating Acquired Brands

When a restaurant group acquires another concept, it makes news headlines. But behind closed doors, the integration process—aligning systems, culture, marketing, and long-term strategy without eroding what made the brand valuable in the first place—is where success or failure is determined. For Sergio Perez, that challenge is playing out in real time at Latitude Food Group (LFG), formed after &pizza acquired Tijuana Flats. A few months into his tenure as CMO, Perez is helping shape a platform designed to scale multiple brands while strengthening the fundamentals that matter most to operators and franchisees. "I think the overarching North Star has been to really build a platform for franchise growth and really make sure that we're identifying culturally relevant, bold brands that have a unique food story and building a portfolio of like brands to be able to achieve that," Perez says. Perez says a shared services model helps streamline overhead by consolidating functions like HR, IT, and supply chain, making the business more efficient. Those savings can then be reinvested to strengthen unit-level economics and create a more attractive foundation for franchise growth. "Franchisees are not just looking to invest in hot brands, but they're more importantly looking to invest in brands that are going to return on that investment," Perez says. While the back end may consolidate, the front end cannot. One of the biggest risks in integration is overcorrecting and imposing uniformity on brands that succeed precisely because they are different. Perez is acutely aware of that tension, particularly in marketing. Rather than pursuing a traditional rebrand or sweeping overhaul, his approach centers on refinement. "The traditional playbook has tended to be around acquiring brands and quickly leaning into a rebrand or a revolution of the brand," he says. "The way I'm thinking about this exercise is really about optimizing the brands and evolving those from a modern perspective." Perez says restaurant groups must respect each brand's identity. &pizza and Tijuana Flats, while distinct in cuisine and geography, carry strong personalities. "I think both brands have very unique DNA," he says. "&pizza is about community, culture, hospitality, and food while Tijuana Flats is a little bit more colorful but really rooted in a real Mexican Tex-Mex heritage around bringing people together." Preserving that DNA means resisting the urge to standardize too quickly. Perez focuses on boosting what already works. "How do we amplify the volume in the places where both brands are winning? Where do we bring those brands home to their roots to make sure that we're delivering on the promise that consumers who know those brands know that we are not changing the things that they love about the brand?" he says. That restraint is important in marketing, where the temptation to centralize can be strong. Although there are clear advantages to scale—in media buying and vendor relationships—Perez draws a firm line when it comes to the customer-facing experience. From a supply standpoint, integration is an opportunity. The CMO said LFG is using its larger ecosystem to draw better rates. But from a consumer standpoint, separation often makes more sense. Geographic realities can dictate strategy. &pizza operates primarily in northern markets, and Tijuana Flats is concentrated in the South, limiting overlap between customer bases. As a result, LFG is taking a measured approach to shared marketing infrastructure. Media buying may converge, but loyalty programs, customer data, and digital ecosystems remain largely brand-specific. For now, at least. That duality—shared where it makes sense, separate where it matters—extends into how campaigns are executed. Even when two brands are activating around the same moment, the work is deliberately split. "I think it's important to think about moments like 4/20 or other joint marketing effort events as kicking those off as an internal brief with the whole team," Perez says. "Then individually go and tackle each individual promotion because again, the consumers are quite different in each brand." Culture, meanwhile, is perhaps the most complex layer of integration and the hardest to quantify. Perez describes the challenge in human terms. "I think of these brands as individual people who might have a shared value system but operate and behave a little bit differently," he says. LFG's goal is not to erase those differences, but to unify around core principles: hospitality, culinary credibility, and speed. Perez says &pizza and Tijuana Flats share a core DNA as challenger brands that punch above their weight. Still, building a holding company culture requires more than defining values—it requires inclusion. Perez emphasizes listening to legacy teams, many of whom have lived through years of success and struggle. "You will be surprised by how many answers are actually in-house," he says. "It's abo

What Restaurant Leaders Must Get Right About Integrating Acquired Brands

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What Restaurant Leaders Must Get Right About Integrating Acquired Brands

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