Potbelly (PBPB) : 11-year performance

• Potbelly Corporation was acquired by the convenience store operator RaceTrac (Atlanta-based family-owned convenience store and fuel retailer) for $566 million in an all-cash deal finalized on October 23, 2025. The transaction valued Potbelly shares at $17.12 each and ended the sandwich chain's time as a publicly traded company on Nasdaq. 

ticker: PBPB

 

=Potbelly (PBPB) CEO leaving sandwich chain after nine years at helm

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Aylwin Lewis, the CEO of the Potbelly sandwich chain, will part ways with the company in August.

The Chicago-based restaurant did not provide a reason behind the exit.

Lewis, 63, who serves as both CEO and chairman, joined the company in 2008 and led the chain through an expansion and IPO.

"We are grateful for Aylwin's leadership during his nine-year tenure at Potbelly. He is a world class restaurant leader and Potbelly benefited from his leadership," Peter Bassi, a Potbelly board member, said in a statement on Tuesday. “We have started the search process for a new CEO."

Potbelly (PBPB) : 2-year performance

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Potbelly (PBPB) plans major European expansion

Chicago-based sandwich chain Potbelly has signed a “big deal” with a franchisee to expand into a “large European capital” by the early part of 2015, the company's chief executive said today.

 ticker: PBPB

CEO Aylwin Lewis, speaking at an Executives' Club of Chicago forum, said Potbelly will eventually have more shops outside of North America than in, all of which will be run by franchisees. In an interview following the event, Lewis declined to say how many stores the company plans to open in Europe or in which cities. He said details will be announced early next year.

CEO Aylwin Lewis

The stores would be the company's first in Europe and are part of Lewis' plan to build “a Potbelly global nation one neighborhood at a time.” The sandwich chain, which had 347 stores as of Sept. 28, expanded into the Middle East in 2012, where it operates a dozen franchise stores in Kuwait, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates.

The company has said it plans eventually to operate more than 1,000 U.S. stores.

10-month chart

Lewis said the overseas stores will import about 80 percent of Potbelly's domestic menu and add items depending on the location. In its Middle East stores, for example, Potbelly offers a handful of menu items not found in U.S. stores, including baked onion rings, mozzarella sticks, jalapeno poppers, beef bacon cheese fries and chicken strips.

The news comes amid a rough year for the company, which went public in October 2013. Executives have said Potbelly projects flat to negative low-single-digit comparable store sales for the year, which has sent company shares downward. Same-store sales, a benchmark measure of a chain's financial health, declined 2.2 percent in the first quarter and 1.6 percent in the second quarter before rebounding to .5 percent growth in the most-recent quarter, which ended Sept. 28.

Shares of Potbelly stock debuted at $14 per share and rose more than 120 percent on its first day of trading to just more than $30 per share. Since then, it's been all downhill. Potbelly stock was trading at $11.90 mid-day today, down more than 50 percent for the year.

Since Lewis took over as CEO in June 2008, the company has more than doubled its number of stores, the majority of which are corporate-owned. A handful of domestic stores and all its international locations are operated by franchisees.

Morgan Stanley dumps Potbelly (PBPB)

 ticker: PBPB

(8/8/14)  Morgan Stanley Investment Management Inc. recently sold all of its shares of Potbelly Corp., according to an SEC filing disclosed today.

The New York investment bank held more than 2.76 million shares of Potbelly at the end of March, which amounted close to 10 percent of the Chicago-based sandwich chain's outstanding stock.

The news comes less than a week after the Potbelly released discouraging financial results for the second-quarter. Potbelly's CEO Aylwin Lewis acknowledged in the report that the company must experiment with service, menu and messaging tactics to win back sales and profits.

Potbelly shares rose 0.8 percent today to trade in the $12.30 range at midday. Potbelly shares nearly doubled to close at $30.77 on Oct. 4, the stock's first day of trading.

Potbelly representatives did not respond to requests for comment. A Morgan Stanley representative declined to comment.

8/28/14 update:

Potbelly (PBPB) plummets on sales warning

IPO'd at $14 on 4 Oct 2013

dropped the most since its October initial public offering after its annual profit forecast and quarterly sales trailed analysts' estimates.

 ticker: PBPB

Shares of Potbelly Corp. (PBPB) are falling 20%  on Thursday continuing a decline that began in after-hours trading on Wednesday, following the company's 2014 second quarter sales warning.

Potbelly, a sandwich, salads, and fresh foods restaurant chain, announced it's expecting a 1.6% decrease in comparable store sales for the second quarter versus a 3% increase from the 2013 second quarter.

However, the company is expecting an increase in revenue to $83.6 million, up from $78.2 million from the year ago period, but falling short of the $87 million in revenue analysts are expecting.

Potbelly will announced its 2014 second quarter results after the market closes on August 5.

Potbelly (PBPB): 5-month performance

• IPO'd at $14 on 4 Oct 2013
•  ticker: PBPB
  

Potbelly (PBPB) shares plunge on earnings on 19 Feb 2014

 ticker: PBPB

Potbelly Corp. (PBPB) shares fell 10% at the open Wednesday to an all-time low as hungry investors tore through the company’s latest earnings report and were left wanting more.

It was only the second time the Chicago-based sandwich shop released quarterly results as a publicly traded company, and while it nailed the adjusted EPS (posting 6 cents a share, 2 cents better than Wall Street’s expected), they came up short on these key fronts: revenue, comparable-store sales growth and outlook.

Revenue for the quarter ended Dec. 29, 2013, was $74.76 million. According to FactSet, Wall Street had been expecting $76 million.

Potbelly’s comparable-stores sales growth (sales from stores open at least 15 months) rose an anemic 0.7%, down from 2.5% in the previous quarter.

And Potbelly’s outlook for the rest of the year was chilled by the wintery weather. Potbelly blamed a disruptive external environment (aka blizzards) for its weak fourth-quarter comp sales, and warned the same relentless snow and ice have already thrown a damper on first-quarter store traffic. In other words, more of the same to start 2014.

The company is now predicting low, single-digit company-operated comparable store sales growth for the full year.

This has investors wondering. If a hot new comfort food chain can’t haul in winter-weary customers, is something missing? That empty feeling gets worse when they look back at the prospectus Potbelly filed with the SEC in August, ahead of its wildly successful initial public offering in October, in which it touted comparable-store sales growth in 12 of its previous 13 quarters, 5.9% sales growth in the “limited-service restaurants” (LSRs) segment, and a 20.7% profit margin. That profit margin slipped last quarter to 19% while overall sales growth sales was 1.7%, far below its earlier implied growth rate for the segment.

Nevertheless, Potbelly CEO Aylwin Lewis is still upbeat about the future, assuring investors the company’s long-term growth plan remains “very much on track to achieve at least 10% unit growth plus 20% EPS growth on an annual basis.”

Potbelly (PBPB) : 16 months since IPO

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Potbelly (PBPB) : 2-month performance

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Potbelly (PBPB) shares surge on strong earnings

Shares of Potbelly (PBPB) jumped 12% higher Wednesday after the sandwich chain's adjusted profit beat Wall Street expectations in its first earnings since its initial public offering last month. Excluding one-time costs, the firm earned 15 cents per share, up from 12 cents in the same period a year ago, and above the estimates of 9 cents from analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters.

 ticker: PBPB

DETAILS: The Chicago-based restaurant chain went public in October and received proceeds of $108.8 million from the offering, which it used to fund a special dividend and pay down debt. It plans to use the remaining proceeds for general corporate purposes.

Potbelly said that it benefited from strong sales. Its quarterly revenue from company-owned stores open at least a year increased 2.5 percent, which is considered a key indicator of financial performance as it strips away the impact of recently opened and closed sites.

NUMBERS: Potbelly reported net income attributable to the company of $2.2 million versus $2.5 million last year. After making its special dividend to stockholders tied to its IPO and other special items, the company posted a third-quarter loss attributable to shareholders of $52.5 million, or $12.29 per share. That's compared with a loss of $3 million, or 75 cents per share, last year.

The company earned 15 cents per share versus 12 cents per share after adjusting for all one-time costs tied to the offering.

Potbelly's total revenue increased 12 percent to $78 million.

Analysts polled by FactSet were anticipating earnings of 9 cents per share on revenue of $77.9 million.

FUTURE: Potbelly said that it expects adjusted income between $7.5 million and $8.1 million for the full fiscal year on revenue between $300 and $303 million. The company did not provide per-share guidance. Analysts had forecast revenue of $301.6 million for the year.

It also said that it expects 40 to 42 new store openings for the year. At quarter-end Potbelly operated 288 locations, while franchisees operated another 19 restaurants.

Potbelly (PBPB): 1-month performance

  ticker: PBPB

Potbelly (PBPB) began trading on the NASDAQ on 4 October 2013

• Potbelly Corp. shares more than doubled as they debuted this morning.
• The Chicago-based sandwich restaurant chain began trading on the Nasdaq at $14, but the stock was up 136 percent at $32.94 in midday trading.
  

  ticker: PBPB

Executives at the company, known for its Wreck and Hammie sandwiches, were optimistic about the initial public offering. They raised the opening price to $13 earlier this week and then to $14 before trading beganafter an original range of $9 to $11.

Potbelly raised $97.5 million by releasing 75 million shares into the market under the symbol PBPB.

Potbelly prices IPO at $9 to $11 a share

(Reuters) — Sandwich chain Potbelly Corp. expects its initial public offering to be priced at between $9 and $11 per share, raising as much as $82.5 million.

• 10/2/13 update:  The Chicago-based sandwich chain raised its initial public offering range to $12 to $13, according to a document filed today with the Securities and Exchange Commission. 
• Trading on Nasdaq under the  ticker: PBPB is expected to start Oct. 4. 

Potbelly, which operates 280 shops across the United States, will have a market valuation of $280 million at the mid-point of its expected price range.

The company is selling most of the 7.5 million shares in the IPO.

The company said it's selling just under 7.4 million shares and selling stockholders are selling about 138,000 shares. The company won't receive any proceeds from the selling stockholder sales.

The chain operates in the "fast casual" niche popularized by chains like Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. (CMG), Panera Bread Co. (PNRA) and newly public Noodles & Co. (NDLS). Those chains are a step up from traditional fast food, but don't require the time or money that waiter-service restaurants demand.

As of June 30, Potbelly operated 286 shops in 18 states and the District of Columbia, the bulk of which are company owned. Potbelly also has 12 franchised locations in the Middle East.

Revenue in the latest fiscal year totaled $274.9 million, up nearly 16% from the prior year. Profit jumped to $24 million from $7.2 million.

Most of the proceeds from the IPO are intended to pay a cash dividend to executive officers, directors and other insiders.

Potbelly began in 1977 as a small antique store in Chicago. To boost sales, the original owner started offering sandwiches and desserts to customers. That owner sold the store in 1996, and a second shop was opened a year later. The chain reached 100 shops in 2005.

Potbelly hires bankers for potential IPO

(Reuters) — Potbelly Sandwich Shop, a restaurant chain that sells submarine sandwiches and shakes, has hired bankers for a potential initial public offering next year, according to people familiar with the matter.

•  ticker: PBPB

Potbelly, whose backers include Starbucks Corp. founder Howard Schultz and private-equity firm American Securities, has selected Goldman Sachs Group and Bank of America to lead its planned IPO, two of the people said.

The Chicago-based chain, known for its vintage decor and live music, has over 260 shops around the United States, according to its website. In 2011, the chain expanded internationally by opening in Dubai.

The people asked not to be named because the discussions are not public. Potbelly could not be immediately reached for comment. Bank of America, Goldman Sachs and American Securities declined to comment.
Founded in 1977 by its chairman, Bryant Keil, Potbelly has roughly $250 million in revenue, one of the people said.

The original Potbelly opened on Chicago’s Lincoln Avenue in 1977, and was sold to Bryant Kiel in 1996. Within nine years Kiel had expanded its footprint out to 100 locations, and 200 locations by 2008. Now run by Aylwin Lewis, it’s on track to open its 300th location this year. The chain specializes in toasted sandwiches, and now has locations in 18 states, Washington D.C., and 12 in the Middle East. In 2012, total revenue increased 15.5 percent, to $274.9 million.