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June 13, 2011 in Business, Nation/World
Perkins parent files for bankruptcy protection
NEW YORK — Restaurant owner Perkins & Marie Callender’s Inc. today filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, brought down by tough competition, the weak economy and rising food costs.
The owner of the Perkins Restaurant & Bakery and the Marie Callender’s chains said in the filing it plans to shutter 65 stores and cut 2,500 jobs, or about 20 percent of its work force of 12,350.
The Marie Callender’s in Spokane Valley already has closed. Perkins has two restaurants in Spokane, one in Spokane Valley and one in Coeur d’Alene, all locally owned. None of those will close.
Owner Nancy McDaniel said the local Perkins will accept job applications from displaced Marie Callender employees as the restaurants staff up for summer.
“It’s unfortunate that Marie Callender’s closed,” she said.
McDaniel said the wording of the press release announcing the closures of corporate-owned stores was confusing local customers.
“We have had so much bad splash,” she said.
The company cited the weak economic climate, particularly in Florida and California, where many of its restaurants are located, for the bankruptcy filing.
Documents filed with the United States Bankruptcy Court in Delaware indicated the company could not afford to build new restaurants and upgrade existing ones, so it lost traffic to better funded restaurant competitors.
The two chains were “adversely affected by the languishing economy, including declines in consumer confidence and sluggish consumer spending and increased commodity costs,” CEO J. Trungale said in a statement in November, following its most recent quarterly earnings filing for the period ended Oct. 3, 2010.
Food costs have increased since then, pressuring food makers and restaurant chains alike.
The Memphis, Tenn., company had assets of about $290 million and liabilities of $440.8 million, according to the bankruptcy filing. Top creditors include The Bank of New York Mellon Trust and law firm Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP.
The company has 160 owned and 314 franchised Perkins restaurants and 85 owned and 37 franchised Marie Callender’s.
Perkins & Marie Callender’s also runs a baker goods manufacturing division, Foxtail Foods, which makes pies, pancake mix and other items for its in-store bakeries and third-party customers.
Perkins, now owned by New York-based investment firm Castle Harlan Inc., was founded in 1958 and combined with Marie Callender’s in 2006.
© Copyright 2011 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Seven firms or nonprofits win Agora Awards 
hawken on June 13 at 10:56 a.m.
And so another long time business bites the dust. More added to the chronic unemployment
More consequences of the Obama, Keynesian Left, Economic Theory. Please, give us more Obama!
oneanddone on June 13 at 11:28 a.m.
Have you been in any of these restaurants lately? They’re filthy, the food is usually cold, and the staff is indifferent. THAT’S why they’re going down drain, not because of Washington politics. Why on Earth do so many whack jobs see boogeymen behind every circumstance.
reservedparking on June 13 at 11:31 a.m.
Which explains why Marie Callender’s closed abruptly yesterday.
mikeln on June 13 at 11:33 a.m.
I just do not see how people like hawken can blame anything but the wars for profit, health care gone wild because of greedy health insurance companies and a government that is selling us out to the highest bidders, including the present group of elected traitors. Oh, and all those bankersters that robbed us blind pay thier dues to the right more often then to the left.
chefxh on June 13 at 11:51 a.m.
Oh SUUUUUURE, it’s all the President’s fault.
How about this: their food is lousy, service surly, restaurants dirty, and menu 20 years behind the times?
detroitdude on June 13 at 11:59 a.m.
Agree with Chef and Oneanddone, these restaurants are pretty bad. At least the few times I’ve been to the Perkins on Division by the mall. The tables seem like they haven’t had a good cleaning with bleach in over a month, the wait staff is inattentive, the food is VERY mediocre. The last time I was there was for breakfast, I forget what it was I ordered, but under my food there was an actual hard plastic produce tag. The manager offered me a piece of pie. Nuff said. Just my experience, others may vary.
That being said, if you run a restaurant and your food is consistently delicious and highly rated, people will stand in line no matter how bad the economy and no matter how bad the actual customer service.
SugarShane on June 13 at 12:02 p.m.
Wheres Diana and her now famous SR comment page one liner
“Bu bu but… Obama”.
It kills me every time.
SpokaneLiberal on June 13 at 12:11 p.m.
Another long time business bites the dust. More crappy jobs added to the category of non-existent.
More consequences of artificially low taxes draining our nations vitality. More failed examples of Reaganomics, voodoo economics, trickle down not providing those that actually spend with any economic resources and instead redistributing all the wealth to the already rich who horde it. Please Republicans give Hawken more.
meadman on June 13 at 12:14 p.m.
It is cold and rainy today — not at all like June 13th should be… it is, of course, all because of “Obama, Keynesian Left, Economic Theory” right Hawken????
ginniet on June 13 at 12:21 p.m.
Hawken, if you had patronized either Marie Callender’s or Perkins in the last year or two, you wouldn’t be blaming Obama and liberal politics. I’ve been to MC and Perkins/downtown and Perkins/north Division in the last year, and they haven’t kept up with the times. I didn’t find them dirty, but your could tell by their clientele that the younger people have moved on to more up-to-date places. My boyfriend and I almost walked out at the one on north Division because their attitude was so lousy and their service so slow, and we said we wouldn’t go to Perkins anywhere again! It was just convenient that night before a hockey game.
I feel sorry for the employees at MC because I’m sure some of them have been there a while. My parents liked to go there before they died in 2006 and 2009, and that’s probably part of the problem. Since their customers are older, they’re dying out and not being replaced by younger ones who like to go to trendier places.
johnclarke on June 13 at 12:47 p.m.
Holy crap, Perkins fails and it’s Obama’s fault. Hawken just misses it because his parents took him there for smiley face pancakes.
liberal_in_right_wing_land on June 13 at 12:51 p.m.
Typical hawken to blame Obama and the democrats and not see the true facts.
As everyone else has said, these restaurants went under because they are GROSS. If I wanted crappy microwavable food I would go to the freezer section at a store and get something for half the price and it would still probably taste better than the garbage being served at places like Perkins or Denny’s.
Their food cannot even be called food, how can a restaurant survive when it doesn’t even serve stuff that I would feed to my dog.
toliveanddieinla on June 13 at 1:13 p.m.
its because for the same price you pay at perkins or marie callenders you can go to country buffet or golden corral all you can eat etc. better food ,hot food,better service etc. get the picture its not because of obama so so long perkins ,sharis,and skippers etc. im not wasting my money on bad service and lousy food ss dont hate me
de3 on June 13 at 1:18 p.m.
Been in Perkins and Marie Callender’s each, once. Food seemed to have been manufactured frozen food heated in a microwave. Have not been back in more than a decade. Was not impressed.
Now just one more vacant building for the Argonne/Mullan corridor ghost town.
jddavis on June 13 at 1:41 p.m.
I agree with the posters who commented about the service, cleanliness, and food selection/quality found at Perkins. The article did state however, none of the four local Perkins will be closing; perhaps because they are turning a profit?
johnclarke on June 13 at 2:08 p.m.
But see buffets are liberal.
JD, they are most likely privately owned. Did you want evidence of that?
eagleproducer on June 13 at 2:39 p.m.
I guess the boy PhD still needs to attend one of my reading comprehension sessions…
I noticed the press release stated most of the chain’s stores were in Florida and California, hardly bastions of “keynesian” economic practices.
In fact, weren’t California voters the first to buy the swindle that voting to lower their property taxes was the key to prosperity?
de3: Do you really mean to say that the ultra-conservative Spokane Valley isn’t a business paradise? I thought once they got out from under the thumb of the county and formed their own identity the blue chip companies would come knocking down their doors?
Verbal on June 13 at 2:49 p.m.
What about the most important issue here: Are they going to stop making the frozen pies sold in grocery stores?
My Thanksgiving will not be the same w/o MCs Dutch Apple Pie
flutieflakes on June 13 at 3:19 p.m.
Deadbeats who don’t want to pay their bills. THIS IS OBAMA’S AMERICA!!! ;)
Byrdie714 on June 13 at 3:37 p.m.
Sorry—the food wasn’t spectacular plus nothing worse than eating off a table that has a sticky film on it……
SpokaneLiberal on June 13 at 3:52 p.m.
Deadbeats who don’t want to pay their bills after racking everything onto a credit card. THIS IS REAGAN’S AMERICA. And BUSH’s America, and Obama’s America. This is Voodoo economics at work in America. Shame on Obama for joining the gutters of prosperity and their pro-rich anti-work crowd.
jddavis on June 13 at 4:09 p.m.
JC—I have no evidence other than their doors are still open. If privately owned, the owners still have to make their franchise payments plus all of their other costs. If they can’t pay the bills, the doors close. It isn’t a zero-sum game.
If any/all of the local Perkin’s are corporate owned and not making a profit, they would close.
Did I ask for evidence? Not that I recall…
Diana on June 13 at 4:55 p.m.
There is no thread hawken won’t hijack to bleat “hyper-left, Keynesian, liberal, blah, blah, blah, snort, burp…”
If we’re blaming presidents for terrible restaurants going out of business, I’m blaming Reagan. The federal budget ballooned and the national debt quadrupled. The trickle-down effect, Arthur Laffer’s supply-side economic theory, never quite trickled down.
B-b-but, Obama!
de3 on June 13 at 5:49 p.m.
I blame Ike. Perkins was founded in 1958.It’s President Eisenhower’s fault, obviously.
zelda on June 13 at 7:23 p.m.
Perkins is running a chirpy banner ad on the S-R homepage right now. (You take your ad $$ where you can find them.) It’s more palatable than the full-pager in the print edition today advertising miracle air-conditioners. Looks like the busy Amish craftsmen making miracle fireplaces have re-tooled for the season. Just a guess, but selling ACs for “three-hundred and ninety-eight dollars” (they couldn’t just print the number, they had to spell it out and bury it in the ad) isn’t going to be much of money-maker given that Spokane’s spring/summer weather is right out of a “Twilight Zone” episode.
Dazzeetrader11 on June 13 at 9:28 p.m.
Economy that is generated by Obama is the reason so many businesses like this are failing. I know Nancy McDaniel…..a very smart operator. Her Perkins restaurant are very clean and very current in menu.
Not Perkins fault Obama ruined the ability to eat out. It’s the economy stupid. Obama’s economy.
detroitdude on June 13 at 10:08 p.m.
LOL^^^ as usual. I suggest your friend Nancy McDaniel take a more “hands on” approach to her line of restaurants then. As many have said here, myself included, the reason these restaurants are going down is due to three things primarily:
1. The food is mediocre and middle of the road, I wouldn’t classify it as horrible but it is certainly not worth what they charge.
2. Poor management/customer service, if you have a manager who doesn’t care, neither will the servers or cooks.
3. While the restaurant may clear a health board inspection, that doesn’t mean it is necessarily spic and span. At least from the two I’ve dined at, they could both really use a hardcore cleaning from top to bottom. Elbow grease! Same thing when I made the one time only mistake of eating at Shari’s.
Lastly, it is not Obama’s fault lol. What about responsibility of ownership in this case? I can understand that with the economy the way it is, less people are probably going out to eat on the whole, but not enough to shutter an entire chain of restaurants, the problem lies elsewhere. Look at it this way, think about all the highly rated, consistently well reviewed restaurants in Spokane. Lot’s of them aren’t struggling, many are making really good profits.
If you own a restaurant and consistently put out a good product, people will come back and spread the word, despite perhaps having to wait a long time. When you lose that, (the food) everything else suffers and people take their money elsewhere, simple as that.
Dazzeetrader11 on June 13 at 11:47 p.m.
Depends on who you ask Detroit. You, being the substandard human you are, should revel in pruchasing a nice meal at Nancy’s restaurants.
Never cited for a public health violation. Perkins is clean and in your case, you can use the restrooms because yours is likely filthy.
When you get a job or some form of gainful employment, I do hope you’ll go eat at Perkins. It’s a very nice place to eat. Bring your wife too. She can graze to her heart’s content.
I know, I know, she’s the best you can do. Enjoy it.
Orange on June 14 at 3:44 a.m.
Spoke D’alene’ers unite! LOL
drywitt99 on June 14 at 3:55 a.m.
The wisdom of Dazzee: “Depends on who you ask Detroit. You, being the substandard human you are…”
Ahhh….the class and sophistication we’ve come to expect from hawken’s doppelganger.
drywitt99 on June 14 at 4:03 a.m.
Or is hawken Dazzee’s doppelganger????
I can never keep that stuff straight.
detroitdude on June 14 at 7:50 a.m.
Wow, I must have struck a nerve there lol.
drywitt99 on June 14 at 10:49 a.m.
@dude: Don’t flatter yourself. hawken/dazzee blame everything up to and including ringworm and high interest rates on Obama/progressives/and anyone who has ever had a rational thought.
They engage in name-calling (off-base and without wit or style) while decrying it in others.
At least dazzee’s comments are of normal, human length.
Whereas hawken’s go on…and on…and on …
…and on…..
…and on…
Dazzeetrader11 on June 14 at 7:38 p.m.
I think liberals should be called names and degraded as much as possible:) And he IS a subhuman type…..substandard. But we’ll pray for him and his family. Do NOT come to the new Perkins stores!