Buca Inc. downsized its CEO and other headquarters staff Tuesday as it announced a 10 percent drop in fourth-quarter revenue compared with last year at the chain of Buca di Beppo Italian restaurants.
CEO Wallace Doolin will step down Jan. 31 to be replaced by company president and chief operating officer John Bettin. That and other cuts will shrink Buca's Minneapolis headquarters by 15 people, or about 13 percent. Doolin will continue as board chairman.
Bettin was hired at Buca in October 2006. He was president of Morton's of Chicago from 1998 to 2005 and then joined Potbelly Sandwich Works as chief operations officer and senior vice president.
The change comes amid sour financial news at Buca, which operates 90 Italian restaurants in 25 states and Washington, D.C. Same-store sales fell 2.4 percent for the fourth quarter ended Dec. 30, ending a streak of 12 consecutive quarters of gains.
The fourth-quarter drop in revenue -- to $64.1 million from $71.5 million a year ago -- had some mitigating factors: This year's fourth quarter was one week shorter, did not include New Year's Eve, and did not include sales from two restaurants closed in the first half of 2007 or from the company's San Francisco location, which was closed for several weeks for renovations.
Still, its annual earnings were scarcely better. Comparable-store sales, excluding the San Francisco location, grew 0.7 percent in 2007. Revenue dropped 3.3 percent to $245.6 million for the year from $253.8 million in fiscal 2006.
The stock has been sagging like a wet noodle, falling from a 52-week high of $6.39 to less than a dollar. It closed Tuesday at 85 cents a share.
Buca announced last month that it was exploring strategic options, including a sale.
