GOLDEN Colo. The current credit crunch in financial markets has forced Good Times Restaurants Inc., the parent of the 54-unit Good Times Burgers & Frozen Custard, to scale back its expansion plans into the Midwest, the company said Thursday.
Good Times also announced the departure of two executives in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Jim DeBolt, vice president of franchise development, is stepping down June 30, and long-term marketing vice president Robert Turrill will retire in October. No reason was given for DeBolt's resignation.
In the filing, Good Times noted that it had entered into an agreement in December that called for the development of up to 25 restaurants in Nebraska and Iowa with Zen Partners LLC, a group of investors that would finance the construction and real estate deals for the units. The agreement gave Zen the rights to build 10 stores in the Omaha, Neb., and Des Moines, Iowa, metropolitan areas, with an option to develop 15 more over the next five years.
Instead, Good Times reported in Thursday's filing, the company and Zen modified the agreement to give Zen the development rights for three restaurants in Colorado. Zen expects to open one restaurant this year and two next year. In addition, Good Times said this year it would open two-company owned stores in Colorado and one dual-branded Good Times-Taco John's franchised restaurant in Sheridan, Wyo.
Good Times also reported in its SEC filing that plans for development in the Omaha area have been suspended indefinitely because of a lack of availability of acceptable debt financing and a shortage of sites that could be quickly developed. Current conditions in the commodity markets and concerns over general macroeconomic trends, including reduced consumer spending, were also cited for Good Time's development pullback.
“It’s still our plan [to expand to the Midwest], but it is taking longer than the organization had anticipated because of the current environment,” Boyd Hoback, chief executive of Good Times, told Nation's Restaurant News earlier this week. “We’ll wait and see.”
