
Chicago’s hometown hot dog giant Portillo’s is in the midst of an ambitious national expansion, and now a proxy fight may be brewing in its boardroom.Activist investor Engaged Capital, which took a nearly 10% stake in the Oak Brook-based company last year, said Monday that it has nominated two independent candidates to the company’s board.Engaged said it was “forced” to resort to the public nominations of former Wingstop CEO Charlie Morrison and marketing executive Nicole Portwood after months of private discussions around adding Morrison to the board didn’t go anywhere. “We remain ready and willing to reach a constructive resolution that spares all stakeholders an election contest,” Engaged said in a news release Monday.Portillo’s is in the midst of an ambitious national expansion plan, with a goal to grow its fleet of just under 100 restaurants by hundreds over the next two decades. The company, which has been opening restaurants in Texas, Arizona and elsewhere, hopes to transform itself from a mostly regional chain to a truly national one, betting that Italian beef sandwiches and Chicago-style hot dogs will have wide appeal outside the Midwest.But the company has struggled with its stock valuation, which despite an approximately 50% jump since the start of the year is still down more than 60% since it was taken public by Boston-based private equity firm Berkshire Partners in 2021.Representatives for Portillo’s did not immediately return a request for comment Monday morning.Engaged has maintained it thinks the company can succeed, but only if it makes changes to how it does business. Engaged, which previously led an activist campaign at Shake Shack, has pushed Porti …
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