Captain D’s Seafood Named One Of “america’s Hottest Chains"

NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE (Friday, October 18, 2002) - Captain D’s Seafood has been named one of the nation’s “50 Hottest Chains” by QSR, a restaurant-industry trade publication.
The magazine’s annual listing of top quick-service restaurants is based on each chain’s domestic system-wide sales and its total number of open units in a given year. Captain D’s ranked 28th on the 2001 list, with $486.1 million in sales and 562 open units.

Captain D’s Seafood President and COO Ronald E. Walker attributes the company’s strong performance to aesthetic, operational and menu enhancements that have made the Nashville, Tenn.-based chain’s restaurants an increasingly popular dining destination, as well as to unit growth spurred by the company’s franchise development program.

“We’re proud to be recognized as one of America’s top restaurant chains, and we look forward to achieving even higher rankings in the future as recent and future brand enhancements lead to greater sales and unit growth,” says Walker. “Captain D’s offers a unique dining experience and a welcome diversion from typical quick-serve and casual-dining concepts, giving both consumers and franchise investors the value they want.”

Recent changes at Captain D’s include a new restaurant design that embodies the fun, romance and relaxed environment of dockside seafood shacks. The new look features naturally aged woods, an embossed tin ceiling, hanging steel lights and a galvanized steel awning over the dining room, as well as nautical artifacts and local navigational charts. The company also added a number of new menu items, including broiled salmon, shrimp scampi, fried catfish, oysters, Maryland crab cakes and Cajun-style crawfish.

To bolster investor interest in the company’s franchise program, Captain D’s Seafood has also recently introduced several new development options, including smaller, lower-investment restaurant prototypes designed to offer a return on investment that is competitive with other top restaurant brands.

“Our compact and non-traditional restaurant designs, which deliver significant savings on building, equipment, construction and real estate costs, are designed to deliver a competitive sales-to-investment ratio that ranks among the top performing concepts in the industry,” says Vice President of Franchise Development Darin Harris. “This level of return makes the new prototypes attractive options for franchisees and key drivers of future system growth.”

The new prototypes are a central component of an aggressive expansion plan that has Captain D’s significantly increasing the number of company-owned and franchised units in its core markets and in emerging growth areas. The chain is seeking multi-unit foodservice, convenience store and retail operators to spur its franchise growth, and expects that approximately 65 percent of its restaurants eventually will be operated by franchisees.

According to Harris, both single- and multi-unit development opportunities with the company are available in the Midwest, Southeast and elsewhere.

About Captain D’s

Captain D’s Seafood is a pioneer and leader in the fast-casual dining category. The company offers its customers great seafood at reasonable prices in a relaxed environment that embodies the fun and romance of dock-side seafood shacks. Each Captain D’s restaurant serves a seafood menu centered around the company’s signature fried fish, which is hand cut, hand battered and made to order to ensure freshness. The restaurants also offer premium-quality baked and broiled fish, as well as shrimp, chicken and home-style side dishes. A succession of exciting new menu items, including “Coastal Classics” like broiled salmon, shrimp scampi and fried catfish, help the brand maintain its popularity and earn greater consumer acceptance. Headquartered in Nashville, Tenn., Captain D’s owns, operates and franchises more than 570 restaurants in 23 states. The first store was opened in Donelson, Tenn., in 1969 as Mr. D’s. The company later changed its name to Captain D’s and became Captain D’s, Inc. in August 2000.

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