Intern Harrison Smith attended a press conference this morning during which it was announced that a thundering herd of Hooters execs will be leaving Boob City (Hooters) for the rapidly expanding Breastville (Twin Peaks). Read on for his straight-from-the-press-conference-floor business tidbit:
An investment group led by Coby Brooks, who served as president and CEO at Hooters of America LLC from 2003 until last month, has signed a series of development agreements to open 35 new Twin Peaks restaurants over the next 10 years. Twin Peaks, an Addison-based restaurant franchise operating under Front Burner LLC, currently has 15 locations in five states. Six more are slated to open this year.
Four other former Hooters executives will join him in his La Cina Restaurants franchise group: Joe Hummel, former executive vice president of operations and purchasing; Roger Gondek, former vice president of company store operations; Clay Mingus, former vice president and general counsel; and Jim Tessmer, former vice president and controller. All four resigned from Hooters of America last month due to a frustration with the way things were handled at the company, Brooks says.
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Patti Frederick, who served as business administrator for former Hooters of America owner Bob Brooks, also joins the team. The group plans to open restaurants in six states over the next ten years, at a pace of one every six months. “The hardest part,” said Brooks, “is learning their system. Every restaurant’s got a different way of doing things.” Brooks stressed that there’s a difference between Hooters and Twin Peaks, with Twin Peaks stressing fresh food much more than Hooters.
The development agreement reunites the previous two Hooters of America CEOs, Coby Brooks and Rick Akam, under the Twin Peaks brand. (Akam was named Twin Peaks’ COO in May after serving as CEO of Hooters from 1995 to 2003.)
“His decision to join the Twin Peaks management team made my decision to pursue this opportunity that much easier,” said Brooks in a statement.
