PALM BEACH GARDENS Fla. Willie’s Roadhouse Grill LLC on Friday said it had acquired all of the shares of RHG Acquisition Corp., a wholly owned subsidiary of Duffy’s Holdings Inc. that owns 85.5 percent of the common stock of the troubled Roadhouse Grill Inc., a chain that Duffy’s acquired recently.
Willie's Roadhouse Grill's managing member John C. Metz, a Florida-based Denny's and Bennigan's franchisee who is not related to the Pennsylvania-based contract foodservice executive of the same name, now is chairman and CEO of Roadhouse Grill, replacing Paul Emmett.
Emmett was quoted by Willie's as saying: "After we acquired Roadhouse Grill in May 2007, we found the financial condition to be far worse than we had anticipated. In view of the seriously deteriorating financial condition, we decided not to proceed with the previously announced short-form merger, and after exploring several options we decided to sell our interest in Roadhouse to Willie's."
Metz said Willie's was considering the acquired chain's financial condition and was exploring "all strategic and operational options."
As of May 16, Pompano Beach, Fla.-based Roadhouse Grill owned 57 restaurants and franchised 12 branches to five other companies.
