Craveworthy Brands names a McDonald's veteran as CFO
Keith Kravcik, who spent 16 years at McDonald's and turned around Latin America's finances, takes the top finance job at the 20-brand fast-casual roll-up.
Craveworthy Brands, the South Elgin, Illinois operator behind more than 20 fast-casual chains, has named Keith Kravcik as chief financial officer, the company confirmed on 2 November.
Kravcik spent 16 years at McDonald's, most recently as chief financial officer for McDonald's Latin America, where he reversed losses and grew sales by more than 100% over three years. He later served as corporate vice president and controller of McDonald's USA, where ownership and profit-optimisation plans he put in place added close to $200 million in operating profit over three years.
Earlier roles include group vice president and corporate controller at the supermarket group Supervalu, where he led the finance side of a $3.3 billion sale of underperforming chains to a consortium headed by Cerberus Capital, and executive vice president and CFO at Ovation Brands, where he helped lead a company-wide brand turnaround. He trained for 11 years in audit at Ernst & Young and holds an accounting degree from DePaul University.
From McDonald's Latin America to a roll-up of twenty fast-casual chains, the job title keeps changing more than the spreadsheet.
Craveworthy Brands' three-year growth run
Craveworthy was formed in January 2023 by Gregg Majewski, a former Jimmy John's chief executive, starting with four brands: the acquired Wing It On! and The Budlong, plus two in-house concepts, Krafted Burger Bar + Tap and Lucky Cat Poke Company. It has since grown past 20 brands and 300 locations in the US and abroad through a mix of acquisitions and new launches.
Kravcik will oversee the company's financial operations and support that growth across the portfolio, Craveworthy said, without detailing specific targets for the coming year.
Why the finance seat matters now
A roll-up built on acquiring and incubating small chains lives or dies on balance-sheet discipline, and Craveworthy is not the only operator leaning on experience this month: Raising Cane's is opening 12 US locations in November alone, while in London Gail's has just lost its own managing director and operations chief in a reshuffle of its own.
Craveworthy has not said whether more acquisitions are planned before the end of the year.
