COO shake-up has Wright in and Peters forming a new franchise venture.

Bob Wright will rejoin Wendy's in early December and will become the company's chief operations officer in the first quarter of 2014. He will replace John Peters, senior vice president of North America Operations.

Peters has formed a partnership with Wendy's franchisee Rick Holland and together they signed an agreement to purchase 38 company-operated restaurants in the Phoenix market as part of Wendy's system optimization initiative. Peters will also lead operations for 73 Wendy's restaurants that Holland currently owns in Arizona, Colorado, Michigan, South Dakota and Ohio. The Phoenix transaction is scheduled to close in the first quarter of 2014 and will include an agreement for new restaurant growth and re-imaging.

In July, Wendy's announced plans to geographically concentrate its restaurant ownership through the sale of about 425 company-operated restaurants in 13 U.S. markets, primarily in the West. Wendy's continues to sell restaurants to qualified operators on a market-by-market basis and hopes to complete this process during the second quarter of 2014.

A restaurant industry veteran, Wright most recently served as president, chief operating officer and interim CEO of Charley's Grilled Subs. His background also includes working in a leadership capacity for Checkers Drive-In Restaurants, Wendy's International and Domino's Pizza.