Serving as CEO & CRO and Providing Turnaround & Restructuring Support
The Situation
A casual dining restaurant chain with 230 steakhouse restaurants and 26 franchised locations in 23 states, was facing declining EBITDA and liquidity. Mackinac Partners (acquired by Accordion in 2021) was engaged to develop a turnaround plan focused on key initiatives across sales and marketing, cost management, (unit level and G&A), real estate assessment and rationalization, team development and retention, and the establishment of controls and processes to drive run-rate EBITDA by over 100% in 4 months.
Services
Interim Management
Liquidity Management
Bankruptcy Services
Turnaround Management
The Execution
- Realized operational efficiencies and overhead cost savings of over $15MM, annually – this incremental EBITDA creation was a result of strategic planning and operational expertise at the unit level.
- Prepared and executed operations through a Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceeding in which the Company outperformed its DIP cash flow forecast by over $13MM, increasing the cash at exit to $22MM.
- Led the development and system-wide rollout of a new menu focused on returning to core items and simplifying execution in the back-of-house, in conjunction with the rebranding of the concept and the launch of an integrated media campaign to recover guest traffic organically and close the gap in comp sales.
- Analyzed each restaurant location and rationalized the geographical footprint through the closure of over 30 negative carry units to yield $3MM of incremental EBITDA annually.
The Results
As interim CEO, interim CFO, and CRO our team formulated and executed a comprehensive turnaround strategy for the brand. We helped rebuild the Company’s platform and basic operations while concurrently working through a successful Chapter 11 reorganization and balance sheet restructuring.