Einstein Noah Restaurant Group Inc. has signed a multi-unit Einstein Bros. Bagels development agreement with a franchisee in South Carolina and Georgia.
The deal, the third for the Lakewood company, comes a week after it posted higher revenue and net income in the fourth quarter and after a full year of being profitable.
The turnaround for the company is significant considering it was on the brink of disappearing after bankruptcy, change in ownership and a rough five-year stretch of financial instability several years ago.
After altering its image, weeding out underperforming stores, banking cash and relocating from Golden to Lakewood, the company showed gradual progress starting in 2006.
“It’s been our improved financial performance that has allowed us to get into the franchising business and makes us an attractive brand for people,” said Paul Murphy, president and chief executive of Einstein Noah.
The $400 million company, which operates Einstein Bros. Bagels, Manhattan Bagel, Noah’s Bagels, Chesapeake Bagel Bakery and New World Coffee, operates 600 locations.
The new franchisees, Wendy and Skyler Steele, are a mother-and-son team who plan to open four restaurants within the next four years .
The company had a 6.1 percent increase in fourth-quarter 2007 revenue to $105.2 million, from $99.2 million for the same period of 2006. In the first quarter of 2008, which ended Jan. 1, the company’s net income rose to $6.8 million from $6 million in the same period of the previous year.
