The new owner of Carlsbad-headquartered Catalina Restaurant Group has closed an undisclosed number of Coco’s Bakery and Carrows restaurants, citing lagging sales performance.
Based on interviews with former employees, the industry publication Nation’s Restaurant News reported that 73 restaurants – 38 Coco’s and 35 Carrows, most of them in California – were shuttered as Texas-based Food Management Partners (FMP) took over the company on April 1.
The publication also said nearly all of the approximately 100 employees at Catalina’s Carlsbad headquarters were laid off. Catalina and FMP officials could not immediately be reached for comment.
In a statement, officials of San Antonio-headquartered FMP said the current market climate has “forced us to make difficult decisions about many of our restaurants” that are not performing at a
competitive financial level.
“After extensive review, we have developed a plan that we believe will enable the parent company of Coco’s and Carrows, Catalina Restaurant Group, to make the two brands stronger than ever at both the company and franchise level,” said Peter Donbavand, FMP’s vice president of business development, in a statement.
“Unfortunately, this roadmap to sustainability may include restaurant closings,” Donbavand said.
At the time FMP announced its planned acquisition of Catalina last month, for an undisclosed price, there were a total of 149 Coco’s and Carrows in three states. According to the restaurants’ websites, there are currently eight Coco’s and no Carrows operating in San Diego County.
FMP acquired Catalina Restaurant Group from Zensho America Corp., a subsidiary of Tokyo-based Zensho Holdings Co. Ltd., which had owned Catalina since 2006.
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