Content area
Full Text
Industry analysts are predicting that revenues for eateries will be up nationwide by 6 percent for 2004, and the Catalina Restaurant Group wants to get a bigger piece of the pie.
Sam Borgese, the chief executive officer of the Carlsbad-based restaurant management company, which acquired the two flagging brands, Coco's and Carrows, from the now-defunct Advantica Restaurant Group in 2002 for an undisclosed price, doesn't like to call himself a turnaround specialist.
"I've found myself in companies that are in a mode of restructuring," he prefers to say.
And, he's quick to add that he's had extensive experience in venture-capital funded companies. Wexford Capital, LLC of Greenwich, Conn., is a majority shareholder in the Catalina Restaurant Group.
As his resume shows, he has also held executive positions in such industries as real estate development, construction and retail.
"I was hired by CRG to help create and implement a strategic plan for redevelopment," he said. He came on board as the company's chief development officer in the fall of 2003 and was promoted to his current position nine months later.
Turnaround specialist or not, he has a long "to-do" list to bring the brands back to the position they once enjoyed as two of the nation's more prominent family dining venues.
One of the reasons the chains lost some of their status, Borgese said, is that...