Robin Gagnon and Eric Gagnon Earn IBBA's Top Honors for 2025

Robin Gagnon, and Eric Gagnon, Founders of We Sell Restaurants, have each been recognized by the International Business Brokers Association with top honors for outstanding performance during 2025. The awards were presented at the 2026 IBBA Annual Conference in Minneapolis, Minnesota. For a brand built entirely around the restaurant industry, it is a meaningful moment and a reflection of the work being done every day on behalf of restaurant owners nationwide.

Two founders. Two distinct honors. One brand at the top of its profession.

What Is the IBBA?

The International Business Brokers Association is the world's largest professional trade association for Business Brokers and M&A Advisors, with more than 3,000 members worldwide. Since its founding in 1984, the IBBA has served as the standard-setting body for the business brokerage profession, providing education, professional designations, networking, and resources that support the successful transfer of business ownership.

Emily Bowler, Executive Director of the IBBA, shared this about the honorees:

"The professionals recognized through the IBBA's Member Excellence Awards program represent the highest standards of our profession. Their dedication, expertise, and commitment to helping business owners successfully transition their businesses have a lasting impact on entrepreneurs, employees, families, and communities. We are proud to recognize this year's recipients for their outstanding achievement and their contributions to the business brokerage industry."

Robin Gagnon: Chairman's Circle and Deal Maker

Robin Gagnon earned two of the IBBA's most prestigious honors for 2025: the Chairman's Circle and the Deal Maker award. The Chairman's Circle represents the top tier of IBBA performance. It is not nomination-based and it is not determined by peer votes or committee decisions. Recipients are identified through verified transaction data from the previous calendar year, meaning the recognition is tied directly to real outcomes for real business owners.

The Deal Maker designation adds another layer, recognizing the volume and complexity of transactions closed. Together, the two honors reflect what Robin has built over years of working exclusively in the restaurant space: deep buyer relationships, a refined transaction process, and a track record that speaks for itself.

Eric Gagnon: Outstanding Producer Award

Eric Gagnon earned the IBBA's Outstanding Producer Award for 2025, recognizing exceptional production volume across the year. Like the Chairman's Circle, this recognition is grounded in verified transaction data. It is a measure of real results delivered for real clients, not a committee judgment or a peer nomination.

For Eric, the recognition reflects the same commitment to the restaurant industry that has defined We Sell Restaurants since its founding. Every deal closed represents a restaurant owner who trusted the process and came out the other side of one of the most important financial transactions of their life.

A Brand Built on One Idea

Robin and Eric Gagnon launched We Sell Restaurants with a straightforward premise: the restaurant industry deserves a brokerage built specifically for it. Not a generalist firm that handles restaurants among dozens of other business types, but a team that eats, breathes, and lives the restaurant space every single day.

That focus has shaped everything about how We Sell Restaurants operates. From the way listings are marketed and priced, to the buyer network cultivated over years, to the franchise model that has expanded the brand's reach into markets across the country, every piece of the business has been designed with restaurant transactions in mind.

Over the years, that model has produced thousands of successful restaurant sales for owners at every stage of the process. Independent operators ready to retire. First-generation owners looking to take chips off the table. Multi-unit franchisees executing a planned portfolio exit. Sellers navigating an unexpected life change. We Sell Restaurants has guided all of them through the process.

What This Recognition Reflects

The restaurant industry has continued to navigate a challenging environment, with rising costs, shifting consumer habits, and an evolving financing landscape making transactions more complex than ever. Closing deals at a high level in that environment requires more than experience. It requires relationships, market knowledge, and a process refined over hundreds of transactions.

That is exactly what We Sell Restaurants brings to every engagement. And that is what the IBBA is recognizing when it places both founders among its top honorees for 2025.

For restaurant owners considering a sale, this kind of third-party validation matters. It is one thing for a brokerage to describe itself as the best in the industry. It is another for the industry's own governing body to confirm it through its highest honors, for both founders, in the same year.

The We Sell Restaurants Difference

We Sell Restaurants operates as the nation's largest restaurant brokerage franchise, with a network of specialized brokers serving markets across the country. Every broker in the network focuses exclusively on restaurants, bringing category-specific knowledge to every listing, every buyer conversation, and every negotiation.

Restaurants listed with We Sell Restaurants benefit from targeted marketing to a qualified buyer pool, accurate valuations grounded in restaurant-specific data, and experienced representation through every step of the transaction. From the initial valuation through due diligence, lease assignment, and closing, the team is built to handle the complexity that comes with selling a restaurant.

The 2025 IBBA honors for Robin and Eric Gagnon are the latest proof point in a track record that restaurant owners across the country have been trusting for years.

About the International Business Brokers Association (IBBA): Founded in 1984 and with more than 3,000 members worldwide, the IBBA is the largest international nonprofit association operating exclusively for people and firms engaged in business brokerage and mergers and acquisitions. Learn more at www.ibba.org.

Ready to Sell Your Restaurant?

If you are thinking about selling your restaurant, there is no better time to have a conversation with the team that just earned the IBBA's top honors. Contact We Sell Restaurants today for a free valuation and find out what your restaurant is worth.