Dive Brief:
- SPB Hospitality, a portfolio company of Fortress Investment Group, has appointed G.J. Hart as chairman and chief executive officer, effective immediately, the company said Monday in an emailed press release.
- Hart, who previously served as CEO at Red Robin, succeeds Josh Kern, who is resigning to take a different executive role in the restaurant industry. Kern will remain at the company through mid-October. Hart currently serves as an operating partner at Fortress and will continue to be chairman and CEO of Hart to Hart Global Advisors.
- The CEO transition comes after SPB Hospitality offloaded Old Chicago Pizza + Taproom in July and sold its brewery and specialty concepts in December to narrow its focus on its core brands. The company currently owns Krystal, Logan’s Roadhouse, J. Alexander’s and a handful of other casual dining restaurants.
Dive Insight:
Hart joins SPB as the company undertakes a number of strategies to strengthen its stable of brands, and his experience as CEO of several major chains across different sectors could help it prioritize paths forward.
SPB’s recent sales of several of its restaurant brands were intended to help the hospitality company focus on its core brands, including Krystal, with which SPB merged in 2023. Krystal has about 270 units, according to its website and has been considering a variety of growth strategies since the merger with SPB.
Krystal launched a refranchising initiative in 2023 as part of a broad turn toward franchised growth. Last year, the chain added a new, sleeker store design meant for c-stores, starting with a Circle K location in North Carolina. Earlier this year, Krystal added its first travel center location in Texas at an EZ Travel Center.
Logan’s Roadhouse also has a sizable national footprint, with locations in 22 states, while SPB’s other brands are somewhat smaller. Stoney River has about 14 locations and J. Alexander’s has about 38, while Chef Jose Garces’ two concepts, Amada and Village Whiskey, have three locations between them.
As CEO of Red Robin, Hart led the casual dining chain through the first years of a major brand turnaround, called the North Star Plan. That turnaround effort included major investments in labor and in equipment. Red Robin’s performance has been uneven, with sales growth in Q1 and a decrease in Q2, though its profitability has improved. The brand turnaround also includes the closure of scores of underperforming restaurants.
Hart said in the press release that he is joining SPB at an important point for the company, which has a variety of concepts. Given the uneven performance of the restaurant industry in recent quarters, that variety might make it more difficult to adopt a single strategic plan for SPB — a factor that may explain the company’s decision late last year to sell-off several of its specialized concepts.
