Bob Evans Restaurants same-store sales fell 2.6 percent in the company’s fiscal third quarter ended Jan. 27, parent company Bob Evans Foods Inc. said on Wednesday.
The decline came as the 523-unit chain’s sale to Golden Gate Capital is set to be complete by the end of April. The private-equity group in January agreed to pay $565 million for the New Albany, Ohio-based chain.
Revenue at the restaurants declined 6.5 percent to $223.1 million, from $238.6 million in the same period a year before.
The decline in same-store sales was largely to blame. Bob Evans’ same-store sales fell 6.7 percent in December, a month when many dine-in restaurant chains struggled. Same-store sales recovered to flat in January, however.
“We’re making progress with our preparations for the upcoming sale,” Bob Evans Farms CEO Saed Mohseni said on the company’s earnings call Wednesday. Mohseni will stay with the restaurants as CEO once the sale is complete. Mike Townsley, president of BEF Foods, will become CEO of Bob Evans Farms.
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