Mas Restaurant Group sells 43 Ohio Taco Bell locations to Southpaw

Mas Restaurant Group sold 43 Ohio Taco Bell locations to Southpaw, a move that pushed another franchise operator past 200 units and set up a new round of ownership changes for store teams. The deal was announced June 25, just weeks after Mas sold 44 Texas Taco Bells to Ghai Restaurant Group.

Southpaw already operated more than 180 Taco Bell and Dunkin locations across six states before the Ohio purchase, and the new portfolio lifted it above 200 units. Mas said it would keep running 36 Taco Bell restaurants in Houston, with backing from Bessemer Investors, LLC, the New York-based investment firm behind the company. Financial terms were not disclosed.

For crew members and shift leaders, the sign on the building is often the least important part of a transfer. The Taco Bell brand stays in place, and franchise agreements generally require franchisor consent before ownership changes hands, but the people setting schedules, training habits, bonus structures and day-to-day operating standards can change quickly. In practice, that means the first 90 days after a transfer often bring new labor expectations, new local leadership and different systems for managing the floor, even when the menu board looks familiar.

Andrew Mendelsohn, a managing director at Bessemer, said the transaction “underscores the strength” of Mas Restaurant Group’s operations and Ohio footprint. Chad Motsinger, Mas’s chief executive, tied the value of the restaurants to the company’s culture and the dedication of team members, a reminder that franchise deals are built on labor as much as on geography.

The sale also fits a larger shuffle inside Taco Bell’s franchise system. Southpaw expanded in June 2023 by buying nearly 40 Taco Bell locations in the greater Atlanta market, a deal that brought it to 115 Taco Bell restaurants across five states and more than $300 million in annual sales across its restaurant base. For managers, transfers like this are when documentation matters most: training records, scheduling practices, wage setups and operating checklists tend to be the first things a new owner wants to review. For the people working the shifts, the brand may stay the same, but the rules of the room often do not.