LITTLETON Colo. Champps Entertainment Inc., which is selling its 61 sports and entertainment restaurants, narrowed the gap on its net loss for the fourth quarter, but still finished its fiscal year with a larger loss than a year earlier. The company blamed the loss on falling sales and climbing costs.
Champps is expected to close Oct. 1 on a deal to sell its Champps Americana chain for almost $75 million, or $5.60 per share, to F&H Acquisition Corp., the holding company of Wichita, Kan.-based Fox & Hound Restaurant Group, should shareholders approve the deal later this month.
The net loss for Champps' fourth quarter ended July 1 was $700,000, or 6 cents per share, compared with a net loss of $2 million, or 15 cents per share, for the same quarter in 2006.
The company, which closed four underperforming restaurants during its fiscal year, reported a net loss for the full year of $7.9 million, or 60 cents per share, compared with the year-earlier net loss of $1.6 million, or 12 cents per share.
Total revenues for the fourth quarter fell 4.7 percent from a year ago to $47.1 million. Same-store sales also decreased in the fourth quarter by 4 percent. Fiscal 2007 annual revenues fell 4.3 percent to $198.07 million, the company reported.
Mike O'Donnell, Champps chairman, president and chief executive, credited better cost control and improved productivity with slowing the company's fourth-quarter loss. Yet, the casual-dining chain was hit with higher dairy costs and labor expenses from the introduction of a bonus program and from minimum wage hikes for tipped employees in some states, especially Ohio and Colorado, he added.
