This translation has been automatically generated and has not been verified for accuracy.Half a decade into Prem Watsa’s transformation of one of Canada’s largest restaurant chain owners, Recipe Unlimited Corp.'s turnaround is sputtering.
Salvaging the turnaround is now the sole responsibility of CEO Frank Hennessey, who joined in 2018 after running Imvescor Restaurant Group Inc., which owned chains including Baton Rouge and Pizza Delight. Earlier this month, Recipe announced the retirement of executive chairman and former CEO Bill Gregson.
It’s quite a change from the early days of the transformation. When Cara and Prime merged, Fairfax named retail turnaround star Mr. Gregson as the company’s CEO and showered him with stock options, suggesting he’d make magic. As the fears mounted, management tried to keep up with industry-wide disruption by partnering with delivery services such as UberEats, Just Eat and Skip the Dishes, which are popular with younger customers. But nothing moved the dial, so in January, 2018, Mr. Watsa merged another of his restaurant holdings, Keg Restaurants Ltd., into Recipe, adding more than 100 steakhouses in Canada and the United States. Crucially, The Keg’s same-restaurant sales had been climbing.
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