Chicken Out Rotisserie Announces $21.25 Million Equity Financing.

Business Editors

GAITHERSBURG, Md.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 14, 2002

Chicken Out Rotisserie, a Maryland-based chain of 30 fast casual restaurants, today announced it has secured $21.25 million in one of this year's largest private equity raises for a privately-owned restaurant company.

Grotech Capital Group, a leading venture capital group in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast, led the financing, with participation from Mercantile Capital Partners, Reicon Capital and William Blair & Company partners. The Company will use this new funding to open additional Company-owned stores in existing and new geographic markets and develop a comprehensive franchising division to accelerate the Company's growth. The Company also plans aggressive growth of its Catering Division.

Lee Hindin, Chicken Out Rotisserie's President and Chief Executive Officer, said, "Grotech and this syndicate present a great fit with our team. We share the same philosophies and ideas of how to build a great business. Our new partners have tremendous experience in the restaurant business. It means a great deal to us to know that our partners have done it before and understand what it takes to build great companies and great brands."

According to Rick Hindin, the Company's Chairman and chief marketing strategist, "It is Chicken Out Rotisserie's eat good branding position, featuring always fresh, 100% all-natural recipes, that makes the concept unique in the `fast-casual' category and in our customers' minds." Rick Hindin brings more than thirty years of retailing and marketing experience to Chicken Out Rotisserie as a co-founder of Britches of Georgetown in 1967, growing it to over $100 million in sales, and serving as the President of Adworks Inc., one of Washington's largest privately-owned advertising and marketing consulting firms.

Dennis Shaughnessy, a General Partner at Grotech, will join Chicken Out Rotisserie's Board of Directors along with Antoine Treuille from Mercantile Capital Partners. Mr. Shaughnessy stated, "We are very pleased that Chicken Out has continued to prosper and grow, despite a tight economic environment that traditionally inhibits growth in the restaurant industry." Mr. Shaughnessy led the restructuring and recent sale of A&W Restaurants and Long John Silver's Restaurants--two of Grotech's portfolio companies--to Tricon Global Restaurants for $320 million.

"The goal now is to build the best fast casual brand in the country," stated Lee Hindin. "With this equity raise, we get more than just the capital to grow our company, we get partners with the experience, understanding, and track record necessary to help us build Chicken Out Rotisserie into the national leader we envision." The Company's exclusive placement agent in connection with the offering was William Blair & Company, L.L.C.

About Chicken Out Rotisserie(R) (www.chickenout.com)

Chicken Out Rotisserie is a restaurant chain with 30 restaurants located throughout Baltimore, Maryland; the Washington, DC metropolitan area; Charlotte, North Carolina; and Atlanta, Georgia. Chicken Out Rotisserie's menu features its award winning, all-natural, fresh four-pound rotisserie chicken, as well as a wide variety of salads, soups, sandwiches, wraps, platters and desserts. The Chicken Out Rotisserie Catering division serves a wide range of events for 10 to 10,000 people and has partnered with outdoor entertainment venues from Wolf Trap Farm Park for the Performing Arts to National Football League Teams, including the Washington Redskins(R) and the Carolina Panthers(R). The Company's non-profit division, The Chicken Out Rotisserie Do Good Foundation(TM), assists local not-for-profit groups and organizations in raising funds for charitable causes.

About Grotech Capital Group (www.grotech.com)

Founded in 1984, Grotech Capital Group is the largest private equity firm focusing exclusively on the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern United States and has originated and created some of the most successful companies in America. With nearly $1 billion in capital under management and offices in Maryland and Northern Virginia, Grotech originates and leads investments in emerging and traditional industries, including communications, technology, healthcare, and business products and services.

About Mercantile Capital Partners (www.mercantilecapital.com)

Mercantile Capital Partners is a private equity fund investing in the merchandising/consumer-oriented sector. Mercantile Capital seeks to invest its capital in a small number of well-managed companies that can achieve superior rates of return over a three to seven year period. The Fund invests in the form of private company recapitalizations, growth equity investments, traditional acquisitions and structured-securities investments. Mercantile Capital Partners is affiliated with Financo, Inc, an investment bank focused on serving the merchandising/consumer-oriented sector.

About Reicon Capital, LLC 

Founded in 2000, Reicon Capital, LLC is a private investment management firm focused on public and private equity investments with over $500 million in capital under management.

About William Blair & Company, L.L.C. www.williamblair.com

Founded in 1935, William Blair & Company is an independent investment firm offering investment banking, equity research, institutional and private brokerage, asset management and private capital to individual, institutional and issuing clients. Located in Chicago, Hartford, London, San Francisco, Tokyo, Vaduz, and Zurich, William Blair & Company is entrusted with more than $20 billion in client assets.