Monday, June 13, 2011

The Economy Gets Pancaked

The latest restaurant chain to file for bankruptcy?  The owners of Perkins and Marie Callender's.

The Memphis, Tennessee-based company listed assets of $290 million and debt of $441 million in the today’s Chapter 11 filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Delaware. It plans to shut about 65 restaurants and eliminate about 2,500 jobs, company lawyer Robert S. Brady said in a court filing.

Chief Executive Officer Joseph Trungale said in November that “the languishing economy, including declines in consumer confidence and sluggish consumer spending and increased commodity costs” hurt sales at the Perkins Restaurant & Bakery and Marie Callender chains in the quarter ended Oct. 3.

Higher costs for goods such as dairy, eggs, seafood and pork, which accounted for 25.4 percent of sales, were only partly offset by more efficient pie-making, according to a quarterly report. Labor and benefit costs also rose. 

There's at least a couple of Perkins around my apartment in the NKY...or were.  They've all closed in the last month or so, and it appears the chain is in real trouble now.  Another 2,500 jobs gone...but the real problem, Congress warns us, is the national debt.

I don't think the national debt matters much to the 2,500 people out of a job here.

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