Bear Rock founder Bryant out as CEO - Triangle Business Journal:

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The moves come as Bear Rock strugglesw to growits brand. At one the company boasted of plans to have more than 150 franchised restaurants aroundthe country. By 2006, ther e were 39 Bear Rock Cafés. Today, there are 27. Changex have been engineered byBear Rock’sa largest stockholder, New York City-based private equith firm , which has brought in Atlanta-basex to run the company. “We’re prett y excited,” says RGB President Andy Abbajay, a veteran restauranf executive. Asked if UEF forced Bryant out, Abbajayg says, “No.
” sent out a memorandum to its franchisee s July 21announcing Bryant’s resignation, whicj the memo declared effective immediately. The memo stated that Bryant was leaving hispost “to pursuew other business opportunities and spend more time with his Bear Rock will keep a two-person regionak office in the Triangle, but many of the company’s back-officwe functions will be transferred to where RGB employs a dozenb people. Three Bear Rock employees will belaid off.
United Enterprisew Fund representatives did not return a call seeking Bryant responded to questionsvia e-mail, writing, “j did indeed resign from Bear Rock recentlyu to spend more time with my teenage children and pursuwe other business opportunities. This was my personal decisionn and one that I had contemplates for thelast year. It is a friendly departures fromthe company.” Bryant, the son of former head Charliew Bryant, opened the first Bear Rock Cafe in Raleigh’se Lake Boone Shopping centee 11 years ago. By October the chain had nine locations in thestate – and was intenf on adding more.
Tim Greene, a formerf stockholder and franchisee, says the company eventuallyt sold more than 100 franchisesand didn’t mind signing up folka with little or no restauran experience. Prices for a franchisde differed but ran inthe $30,000 to $35,000o range, according to sources with knowledged of the process. But while that franchises revenue was rolling into thecorporate office, crackws were beginning to show in the financiall model that Bear Rock was selling to One of the main problems was that whilew Bear Rock was essentially a sandwicgh shop that did almost all of its businessa at lunch, it had the overheadd of a higher end “In essence, you had too much cost and not enoughb revenue,” Greene says.
Buildout costs rangecd from $650,000 to $800,000, says who once operated a Bear Rockat Durham’s The Streets at Southpoinr mall. Unlike some of the sub shops itcompeted against, Bear Rock requiredr its locations to be at leastf 2,500 square feet, and many were more than 3,000 squarew feet. That drove up leasw costs. Greene estimates that Bear Rock storesneededc $1.3 million to $1.7 million in annualo revenue to be profitable. Franchiseesw complained that costswere higher, and revenue than what the company had “I think, in the end, Bear Rock oversol the earning potential of thesew stores,” says former franchisee Tom Nicholson, who operatex a Bear Rock in Birmingham, Ala.
“My sales nevere came close to what they said Iwoulf get.” Nicholson ended up filing a civil complaint against the company in 2006, but he is no longedr pursuing the lawsuit. Anotherd franchisee lawsuit in Nebraska went to and the arbiter eventually ruled inBear Rock’sa favor, according to Abbajay and RGB Chiedf Development Officer Nick Another franchisee lawsuit filed with regard to a Charlotte location is no longer being pursued by the plaintiff, they say.
problems started to catch up with Bear as evidenced by the declining number of A statement issued by Bear Rock says that its new managementg team wants to grow the company to 125 locations over the next five The company is trying to reinvent its brand as part of a plan that includesx a newrestaurant design, menu changes and a focus on unit “It doesn’t need to be a total changde of platform, but it all revolves around the says Abbajay, who wants offerings that will brinfg in more dinner patrons whilse boosting the catering business. Asked about the new franchisee Darryl Cooksays he’s concerne about the people who stillo operate restaurants under the existin g concept.
Cook owns the Bear Rock franchisd near the intersection of Six Forkas Road and Wake Forest Roadin He’s also concerned that because the new managemenyt team has other business interests, it won’r be able to devote 100 perceny of its time to fixing Bear Rock’s problems. “This concep needs a lot of Cook says. Abbajay says he’s trying to improve communication with RGB currently manages airport and mall restaurant chaij LePetit Bistro, which has 23 including ones at Crabtree Valley Mall and Triangle Town