Valenti takes East and Ratner takes West as RA restructures

Nation's Restaurant News, Nov 12, 1990 by Paul Frumkin

Valenti takes East and Ratner takes West as RA restructures NEW YORK -- Restaurant Associates has promoted Nick Valenti to executive vice president of East Coast resturants and Philip Ratner to executive vice president of West Coast operations as part of a corporate restructuring.

The reorganization, which takes place 10 months after RA was purchased by the giant foodservice company Kyotaru Co. Ltd., follows the departure of veteran executives, Jim Beltrame and Dan Andrus.

Beltrame served as executive vice president and chief financial officer, while Andrus was president of Charlie Brown's and The Office restaurants. Both left to pursue other interests, said chief executive Max Pine.

Valenti -- who maintains his position as president of the 45-unit RA Restaurant Group -- has also assumed Andrus' responsibility for Charlie Brown's and the Office restaurants -- which together total 28 units. East coast operations are expected to gross $175 million in 1991.

Ratner will continue to run Ra's 50-unit Acapulco Mexican dinner-house chain as well as the recently acquired El Paso Cantina. The company is in the process of converting the 10-unit chain to the Acapulco concept.

Ra projects that the two West coast concepts will generate $85 million in fiscal 1991.

Valenti and Ratner report directly to Pine.

In addition, Richard Stockinger, vice president of finance, is now responsible for EDP and risk management. He joins Valenti and Ratner as a member of the executive commitee.

While RA is currently conducting a search for Andrus' replacement, the post of chief financial officer will not be filled. Rather, Pine explained, he will "act in that role."

"Since we're a subsidiary of Kyotaru and not an independent company, we don't need to replace a CFO," he said. "Besides, we have a capable financial vice president."

The departure of Andrus and Beltrame was completely voluntary, Pine said. "When the transaction with Kyotaru took place, it was agreed that a key person could elect to leave and take a 'mini-golden parachute," he added.

But to a great degree, he said, the departures "triggered the other actions."

Both Beltrame and Andrus were among the executives who participated in the management buyout of the then-publicly held Restaurant Associates in 1988. When Kyotaru bought RA earlier this year for about $110 million, it purchased 100 percent of outside investors' shares and about half of management's shares. The remaining 15 percent to 20 percent were retained by former chairman Martin Brody, Pine, Beltrame, Andrus, Valenti and Ratner.

Kyotaru agreed at the time of purchase to pump an additional $35 million into RA over the next five years to aid the company's growth. And while Pine noted that business was "not as good as we would like it to be," RA is moving ahead with growth plans. While Acapulco and Charley Brown's are prime candidates for expansion, the company is also considering spinning off its newest concept, Tropica, as well as Panevino.

"We have a number of new operations in the works," Pine said. "And we've been doing remodeling of older units."

To strengthen operations, he continued, RA added six key positions in the company during the past year -- two of which were real estate-related. "We're gearing up for faster expansion," Pine said.

Restaurant Associates also operates such concepts as Sea Grill, Mamma Leone's American Festival Cafe, Brasserie and Trattoria, all in Manhattan.

Kyotaru -- which is projecting total sales of $900 million this year -- operates 500 takeout sushi shops, 15 dinner houses, 100 family restaurants, 50 sushi bars, 90 Japanese dinners, 30 Chinese restaurants and two ultra-high-end gourmet restaurants, all in Japan.

In addition to purchasing Restaurant Associates, Kyotaru also agreed to buy Paragon Restaurant Group's 54-unit Hungry Hunter/Mountain Jack's steak-house subsidiary and the 21-unit Love's barbecue chain this year, both based in Southern California.

IT also bought Best Western Foods Inc. of Vernon, Calif., one of three official sources of beef for Arby's.

In an earlier comment, Hiroshi Tanaka, chairman of Kyotaru, said his company's "international strategic objective is to build an organization with $1 billion in sales in the U.S. market."