Spicy Pickle Updates Current Operations
DENVER, CO, Jul 16, 2009 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX News Network) --
Spicy Pickle Franchising, Inc. (OTCBB: SPKL), fast casual restaurant operator serving all natural premium meat and poultry and other fresh products and franchisor under its Spicy Pickle and Bread Garden Urban Cafe brands, today updated its outlook for 2009.
Spicy Pickle CEO Marc Geman noted that "Like most restaurant chains and retail in general, the last quarter of 2008 and the first half of this year were difficult times due to the downturn in consumer spending. Our reaction to the reduced spending and increasing unemployment was to reduce our overhead to prepare for a slower anticipated growth rate. We refocused on unit economics based on changing customer habits. In the beginning of the fourth quarter 2008, we completed the purchase of our Bread Garden Urban Cafe chain in British Columbia believing that its growth rate would in the short to medium term outpace US opportunities. That has been the case."
As to company operations and those of its franchisees, Mr. Geman noted that in late May 2009 a franchisee in Houston, Texas opened their first restaurant; and another franchisee has completed construction and will open a restaurant in Naperville, Illinois late July 2009. The Houston restaurant is part of a ten unit development and the franchisee expects to open a second restaurant by the end of this year. The Naperville restaurant is part of a five unit development package. Additional restaurants are anticipated to open in 2009 in Las Vegas, Nevada that is a second in a four unit franchisee development package; in Temecula, California for a new franchisee who is also looking to open another unit; in Chicago as a second restaurant in a five unit development package; and in San Diego where the franchisee has now moved forward with a second location and is looking at a third site. The company has also been negotiating for a location in the Pepsi Center in Denver, Colorado, home of the Colorado Avalanche NHL hockey team and the Denver Nuggets NBA basketball team. A Spicy Pickle franchisee closed two units in Michigan, he added.
Mr. Geman continued, "The Bread Garden Urban Cafes continued to open new restaurants and new locations are under negotiation. At this date, there are 13 Bread Garden Urban Cafes operating in British Columbia. Two are airport locations, one in Kamloops, BC and the other in the newly opened C Terminal serving Air Canada at the Vancouver Airport which opened in early July 2009. Build-outs for three additional locations are underway in downtown Vancouver and another at Whistler Mountain. Several additional locations are under negotiation."
Mr. Geman noted, "The continued expansion of our Bread Garden Urban Cafes throughout greater Vancouver and up to Whistler Mountain, out to Kamloops and other British Columbia locations under negotiation, have exceeded our growth expectations and should result in significant additional revenue for The Company as we approach the end of this year. Our reduced overhead along with the anticipated Spicy Pickle and Bread Garden Urban Cafe restaurant openings in the remainder of 2009 puts us in a much better position to continue to weather the economic storm. In addition, we expect to be prepared with new menu and restaurant features to address a more cautious and discriminating consumer which we believe will be the customer of the future. We expect to have at least 42 Spicy Pickle restaurants and 17 Bread Garden Urban Cafes opened by year end."
AI
