Like countless others, Bill Phelps wanted to get rich when he was younger. Now, the 69-year-old CEO of Dave’s Hot Chicken and former CEO and co-founder of Wetzel’s Pretzels says he gets fulfillment out of helping others find financial success.
In the last two weeks, 19 Dave’s employees became millionaires after private equity firm Roark Capital acquired a majority stake of the Pasadena, California-based chicken finger chain in deal worth “close to” $1 billion, Phelps said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on June 2.
Creating that many millionaires was intentional, Phelps tells CNBC Make It.
“I had some investors who were like, ‘you’re giving away too much money, this isn’t right,’” he says. “They were absolutely right as investors to stand up for other investors. They have a fiduciary duty, but I have a duty to the people that created this business and I was true to taking care of all of those stakeholders in this deal.”
As part of the deal, every Dave’s corporate employee, store manager and assistant manager received a bonus roughly equivalent to their yearly salary, president and COO of Dave’s Jim Bitticks told Nation’s Restaurant News.
