Mar 2010 Financial News

Seafood chain to close

Mar 04, 2010

Seafood franchise Long John Silver’s is closing its doors in Trinidad and Tobago.

Joseph Esau, chairman and interim CEO at Prestige Holdings, the franchise holder for KFC, Long John Silver’s, Pizza Hut, TCBY Treats, Mrs Fields and TGI Friday’s, has said the company will not be retrenching workers though it is closing its three Long John Silver’s restaurants.

The closures were announced on Monday, when the company published its audited financial results for its year ended November 30, 2009.

Esau said the Long John Silver’s outlets at Gulf City Mall and Windsor Complex in Arima are already closed.

’There will be no job losses,’ he said. ’We don’t intend to lose any labour.’

He told the Express the last local Long John Silver’s outlet at MovieTowne, Invaders’ Bay, will be closed around the end of March.

Esau said the cost of the imported sea foods at Long John Silver’s was making the brand hard to maintain.

He said the company was on a continuing drive to ’improve performance and shareholder value’.

As part of this drive, three branches of ice cream parlour TCBY Treats will also be closed in 2010.

Esau said the company faced staff shortage problems and absenteeism and, as such, was re-absorbing workers from the closed branches.

Asked about wages, he said: ’We think we pay decent wages. It is more than minimum wage for the entry level and, within months, salaries can be increased.’

Former and present employees at both KFC and Pizza Hut complained to the Express yesterday that the starting salary was just a few dollars above the $10 minimum wage and the job required a lot of effort, as the outlets were sometimes understaffed and customers blamed staff at the counters for issues and were not understanding when they tried to explain the situation.


Source:
Aretha Welch
awelch@trinidadexpress.com
Trinidad Express
Thursday, March 4th 2010

http://www.trinidadexpress.com/index.pl/article_business?id=161603291