PROVO — A Provo-based fast casual restaurant chain that owns Hogi Yogi, Teriyaki Stix and Yoasis has been acquired by a Salt Lake City-based private equity firm, company officials announced Thursday.

Under the deal, Sopra Brands, a unit of Sopra Capital II LLC, will manage the Hogi Yogi, Teriyaki Stix and Yoasis stores as well as an existing Sopra franchise, HouseMasters, a home inspection services chain. Sopra Brands will operate the restaurant franchises under Peak Brands.

“We’re going from a mom-and-pop operation to taking our brand nationally,” said Rick Clayton, who co-founded Hogi Yogi with his brother, Mike. “We were just students when we started this. We bootstrapped, and now, instead of us wearing all the hats, Sopra is providing us with the capital and the specialists that can help us build our brand nationally. The game plan is to hit the surrounding states first, like Idaho, California, Arizona, Colorado, Wyoming and Nevada.”

Through the merger, the Provo company gained the franchise development expertise of Sopra executive Chuck Jones, who had helped double the size of Ben & Jerry’s franchise chain to more than 700 units, as well as oversee the growth of Pizza Hut Express to 2,200 units from 400 units. Jones, who is Sopra’s vice president of development, has more than 20 years of experience in the franchising industry.

“In addition, they also brought in a legal counsel, franchise attorney, and an IT specialist from Sopra,” said Rick Clayton, now franchising developer for Sopra Brands. “The IT specialist will help us with using social networking tools like Twitter and texting to do viral marketing. But first, to develop that customer base, we’re using a ‘Scratch and Win’ card promotion we’ve teamed up with Pepsi to launch June 1, to get the cell phone numbers and addresses of customers when they redeem their prizes.”

Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. “It was a part cash deal. Sopra becomes majority owner but both Mike and I still have an equity position in the company,” he said.

At its peak, the company had 46 corporate-owned and franchise stores. Today, it has 40 Hogi Yogi, Teriyaki Stix and Yoasis locations nationally including six corporate stores and 31 franchises in Utah, two franchises in Idaho and one in California. Its 11 Utah County stores made $4 million last year. Yoasis replaced former donut brand Glazies, which ended in March 2008.

Companywide, the Provo chain has 520 workers including 480 in Utah. Of those, 225 are in Utah County.

Mike Clayton, now CFO of Sopra Brands and co-founder of the Provo restaurant chain, said the company will continue to be based at the Riverwoods Business Park in Provo, and will likely add more workers once it has acquired more franchises.

“We’re in the process of acquiring two more restaurant brands, one in Utah and one national brand,” he said. “There may be some changes to the [Hogi Yogi and Teriyaki Stix] menu. We’ve brought in professional chefs and food developers to make the food better. We’re not taking away favorites like the Curry Bowl and Teriyaki bowl. But the price point will be better.”

Brian Charlesworth, managing director of Sopra Capital, said the company is “looking for profitable businesses and has found some real advantages to owning these brands.” Sopra also owns FranSearch, Inc., an executive recruiting company specializing in franchising.

Rick Clayton said his company’s long term growth potential is in franchising, not owning corporate stores.

“We’ve never gone out actively to sell franchises, because we didn’t have the resources to do it. But that’s something we will do now. We’ll be selling franchise areas through trade shows and to other professional restaurant franchise operators in other states,” he said.

Founded in 1989, Hogi Yogi started with just five employees in Orem and relocated to its present location at the Riverwoods Business Park in 1997 with help from a $2 million U.S. Small Business Administration-backed loan. The Clayton brothers, both graduates of Brigham Young University’s Marriott School of Management, developed their first operations manual for Hogi Yogi through class projects.

“Emotionally, this is a very difficult thing for us to do, because this business has been our whole life, and now we’re going in a different direction. It feels different but we’re secure because we have great support behind us,” Rick Clayton said.