IPO Watch: Chefs Warehouse (CHEF)

Chef’s Warehouse Holdings, LLC will likely soon be public as The Chefs’ Warehouse, Inc.  It has filed to come public via an Initial Public Offering and plans to list its common stock on The NASDAQ Global Market under the symbol “CHEF.”

Jefferies is the sole book-runner in the filing.  No financial terms were given other than that the company plans to sell up to $100 million in common stock.  The company is all owned by individuals and Chef’s Warehouse will receive none of the proceeds generated from the share sale by holders.

The operations are as “a premier distributor of specialty food products” in the United States.  Its focus is for specific needs of chefs who own or own and operate leading independent restaurants.  These clients also own  and serve fine dining establishments, country clubs, hotels, caterers, culinary schools and specialty food stores. Its claim is to have an extensive selection of distinctive and hard-to-find specialty food products.

The focus  is also around select markets and it listed the primary markets as New York, Washington, D.C., San Francisco, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and Miami.  It also claims to have more than 7,000 client locations.  Revenues in 2010 were $330 million and net income was $15.87 million after income tax provisions.

The full IPO filing is here.

JON C. OGG