HEAlTHCARE
Allergan PLC is buying Newport Beach-based Bonti Inc. for $195 million.
Bonti develops a neurotoxin that’s similar to the drugmaker’s best-known product, Botox. Like Allergan’s strategy with its neurotoxin, the clinical-stage biotechnology company is pursuing both aesthetic and therapeutic uses for its product.
The acquisition “is a strategic investment for the future of our medical aesthetics business,” said Allergan Chief Executive Brent Saunders.
New Jersey-based Allergan has significant operations in Irvine, comprised of medical aesthetics, therapeutic Botox and eye care.
Bonti’s neurotoxin has a faster onset of action and shorter duration of effect than competing products, the company said.
Saunders said the addition of “a fast-acting neurotoxin with two to four-week duration will be an attractive option for consumers.”
— Sherry Hsieh
RESTAURANTS
Mountain Mike’s Pizza LLC, a private equity-backed restaurant chain that moved headquarters from Northern California to Newport Beach last year, hired Jim Metevier as president and chief operating officer.
Metevier worked 22 years for Louisville, Ky.-based Yum Brands Inc.—parent company of Irvine-based Taco Bell Corp.—starting as a general manager for KFC in Orlando, and later held roles at Yum corporate, and ending with two and a half years as chief operating officer of KFC in the U.S.
Prior the Mountain Mike’s job, he worked for Biscuitville Fresh Southern, a Greensboro, N.C.-based fast food chain.
He replaces former Mountain Mike’s co-owner Robert Quick as president; chief operating officer is a new position. Quick will remain a brand consultant.
The company’s co-chief executive roles continue to be held by Britt Private Capital’s founder Chris Britt and Jupiter Holdings’ Ed St. Geme. The two Newport Beach-based private equity firms bought the restaurant chain last year, with backing from Levine Lechtman Capital Partners in Los Angeles.
Mountain Mike’s ranks No. 14 among OC-based restaurant chains with systemwide sales of $156 million from 193 locations, according to Business Journal data.
It currently has one location in OC, in Lake Forest. More are expected, as part of a push to have 208 locations by the end of the year.
It had revenue of about $12 million and net income of about $4 million last year, franchise filings indicate.
It’s the second big restaurant chain that Newport Beach has nabbed in the past year; burrito-making giant Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. saw its executive team move into its Newport Center headquarters in recent weeks, relocating from Denver.
— Paul Hughes
SERVICES
San Francisco’s BPM LLP, one of the 50 largest accountancies in the country, is entering Orange County with the purchase of Santa Ana’s Kramer & Olsen Accountancy Corp.
All 14 Kramer & Olsen employees will stay at its current location and will operate under BPM.
David Jorgensen will continue to serve as the managing partner of the Santa Ana office and will join BPM as partner. Founding Partner Gary Kramer will join BPM as Of Counsel.
Kramer & Olsen specializes in real estate, nonprofits and healthcare, among other areas.
BPM, which has approximately 470 personnel and 40 partners, has six offices in the San Francisco Bay Area as well as offices in India, Oregon, Hong Kong and the Cayman Islands.
Kramer & Olsen ranked 50th on this year’s Business Journal list of accounting firms, based on its employee count.
Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
— Peter J. Brennan
MANUFACTURING
Rossignol Group, a French maker of ski, snowboard and biking products, named Scott Rittschof to a new position as senior vice president of its global bicycle business, based in Irvine.
Rittschof—who has about 30 years’ experience in the industry in sales, marketing, product development and management, and in running retail bicycle stores—will oversee Rossignol’s Time, Felt, and Rossignol bicycle brands.
Since Rossignol bought Irvine-based Felt Bicycles last February, co-founders Jim Felt, Bill Duehring and Michael Müllmann have left the company. A sale price at the time wasn’t disclosed; Rossignol’s revenues were about $270 million and Felt’s were about $60 million.
Felt is known for high-performance bikes that can cost up to $25,000. Trade publications have reported Rossignol’s 2019 line of bikes brings it deeper into more consumer-oriented products that include electric bicycles and mountain bikes.
— Paul Hughes
