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TWO major US seafood restaurant chains have been sold in a near sixty million dollar deal.
Darden Restaurants, which has some 1,900 outlets and generates $7.5 billion in annual sales, has added the Eddie V's Prime Seafood and Wildfish Seafood Grille restaurant brands to its portfolio in a $59 million cash transaction.
The brands will become part of Darden's Specialty Restaurant Group. Eddie V's is a leading luxury seafood brand with strong consumer appeal, high average unit volumes and a strong return on invested capital. It was founded just over 10 years ago by Guy Villavaso and Larry Foles. Wildfish, Eddie V's sister concept, opened its first location in 2005. The founders have agreed to become consultants for the next two years.
Clarence Otis, chairman and chief executive officer of Darden, said: "Eddie V's and Wildfish are an excellent complement to those brands, enabling us to capture incremental guests in an important segment of full-service dining. The group is now even more strongly positioned to help us achieve competitively superior, long-term profitable sales growth."
Dardens restaurant brands, which are not just seafood related, include Red Lobster, Olive Garden, LongHorn Steakhouse, The Capital Grille, Bahama Breeze and Seasons 52 — reflect the rich diversity of American diners. The company says its brands are built on deep insights into what our guests want, and fish is part of that.
Seafood restaurants are big business in the United States - Dardens alone employs 180,000 people - and earlier this year two giants in the fish eating out business almost came together when Landry's chief Tillman Fertitta made a bid for the large McCormick & Schmick chain. But the deal did not materialise in the end.
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