Shake Shack returns $10mil loan to the US government

Shake Shack returned their $10 million dollar loan they recived from the US government as part of the emergency program that was said to help small businesses.

What We Know:

  • The high end burger chain was given the loan as apart of the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP).
  • The CEO of the company Randy Garutti stated “Shake Shack no longer needs the funds because they are fourtunate to now have access to capital others do not”.
  • Shake Shack said Friday that it expects to be able to raise up to $75 million from investors by selling shares.
  • Executives of the chian argue that many resaurants had been left out unfairly. Grutti told CNN Newsroom “It was very clear that the (PPP) program was underfunded and wasn’t set up for everyone to win. That didn’t seem right to us.” Executives said “by returning our $10 million, that $10 million can go back into the pot and go to the people that deserve it”.
  • Garutti is now calling on the Small Business Association to increase funding to the program. Unfortunately, the $349 billion stimulus package overseen by the SBA ran out of funding last week.
  • A deal for additional funding could be announced somtime this week.

Many smaller companies have had difficulties recieving funds from the PPP. The Shake Shack executives want the US agency to assign a local bank to work with each aplicant and ease the process for small business.