Garden Fresh Restaurants

Garden Fresh Restaurants

Roles
Financial Advisor, Interim CEO, Interim CFO
  • Established sustainable footprint 
  • Stabilized sales, grew guest counts 
  • Supported the sale of the company to an investor group 

The company is a 40-year-old California-based soup and salad cafeteria chain operating 130 restaurants. Faced with declining sales, challenging labor costs, significant debt burden, and multiple internal operational issues, the company was forced to file for bankruptcy and emerged as a new entity owned by senior lenders. CR3 professionals were hired to develop a turnaround roadmap post-bankruptcy revolving around a “save and reinvest” strategy. Additionally, the team served in various interim leadership roles. CR3 ushered in a new corporate culture, established a sustainable restaurant footprint, stabilized sales, and supported the sale of the company to an investor group.

The Situation

  • 40-year-old California based soup and salad cafeteria chain operating 130 restaurants
  • Company faced declining sales due to ineffective marketing initiative, challenging labor costs from minimum wage increases and significant debt burden
  • Company had multiple internal operational issues such as outdated IT infrastructure, deferred maintenance, poor records worker’s compensation, supply chain inefficiency and demoralizing culture
  • Company filed for bankruptcy and emerged as new entity owned by senior lenders

The Work

  • CR3 professionals were hired by new owners to develop a turnaround roadmap post-bankruptcy
  • Designed a plan revolving around “save and reinvest” strategy, focusing on savings around operational improvement (such as supply chain, store closure and overhead reduction) and reinvest in initiatives to improve sales (menu improvement, new marketing initiatives with less reliance on discounting, focused capital expenditure and better prime cost management system)
  • Served as interim CEO, CFO, CMO and VP of Supply Chain
  • CR3 ushered new corporate culture focusing on collaboration and open communications

The Results

  • Established sustainable footprint consisting of core 97-unit chain
  • Stabilized sales through more disciplined marketing approach resulting in positive guest counts for seven consecutive months after emerging from bankruptcy and reversing negative trends from prior two years
  • Supported the sale of the company to an investor group that included an affiliated company

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