Sizzler USA chief executive Kerry Kramp, who spearheaded the brand’s post-recession modernization effort, has left the chain after 11 years, along with four other executives of the Southern California-based company.
Kevin Perkins, who was part of a management-led group that bought the brand from private equity in 2011, is replacing Kramp as company chairman. The brand did not name a new CEO.
Kramp, who was part of the management buyout, left “to pursue other business endeavors,” Sizzler said in a statement.
The Mission Viejo, Calif.-based company said it is using the exit of Kramp and five other executives to “to reorganize our support center so that we can better serve our franchisees.”
That reorganization includes the departure of the company’s chief strategic officer Dennis Scott; Khaled Bagul, the vice president of risk management, leadership development, and people support and culture; Steve McDermott, the senior vice president of finance and analysis; and Tamra Scroggins, director of food culture and corporate chef.
“We have never been more excited about the prospects of our unique business model,” Perkins said in a statement.
Perkins remains a controlling owner and chairman of Sizzler USA, whose sales have flatlined over the past three years, according to NRN Top 200 research.
In its latest fiscal year, ended April 2019, Sizzler’s projected sales were $230.1 million, down from $233.6 million in the Preceding Year. Of the chain’s current 116 U.S. locations, excluding Puerto Rico, Guam and Virgins Islands, 103 are franchised. That number is down from a Preceding Year total of 120 U.S. locations.
The company's reported average unit sales volume was down slightly, or by about 0.5%, to $2 million, in the Latest Year, ended in April, but up by about 3.9% across the past three years.
In 2011, when Kramp, Perkins and Jim Collins led a management buyout of Sizzler USA from Australian-based private equity firm Pacific Equity Partners, the company had 178 units.
At that time, Kramp led a major top-to-bottom overhaul of the brand. The rebranding included remodeling restaurants and returning the brand to its scratch kitchen roots. Cooks were trained as grill masters and many old recipes were revived.
Kramp maintained the changes would boost sales as the brand attempted to reach everyone from young adults to families to senior citizens.
Senior Editor and NRA Top 200 Researcher Alan Liddle contributed to this report.
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