Cosi Inc.
(
COSI
) recently announced the appointment of Carin L. Stutz as the new
chief executive officer (
CEO
) and president effective January 1. Stutz, who was president of
global business development at
Brinker International Inc.
(
EAT
), will also serve Cosi's board of directors.
In mid-September, Cosi announced the resignation of CEO James
Hyatt, who was also the president and a member of its board due to
personal reasons. Since then, Cosi was in search of an efficient
replacement. Mark Demilio, chairman of the company's board, is
serving as the interim CEO.
Having held a number of leadership positions with top-tier U.S.
eateries, Stutz can easily be tagged an industry veteran. She has a
proven track record at Brinker, leading all aspects of franchise
development and operations of 240 Chili's and Maggiano's
restaurants around the globe. Before joining Brinker, Stutz was the
executive vice president of operations at
DineEquity Inc.
's (
DIN
) Applebee's International where she played the key role of
supervising more than 1,900 company-owned and franchise restaurants
in 49 states.
Prior to Applebee's, she handled the Pacific division operation
at
The
Wendy's Co.
(
WEN
) as a vice president. Her resume also contains some other key
roles including regional operations vice president for Sodexo,
U.S.A., and vice president of corporate operations for NutriSystem,
Inc.
However, at the current level, we are not optimistic on Cosi as
it repeatedly missed the Zacks Consensus estimates. Total revenue
also declined year over year in the recently concluded third
quarter of 2011 while loss per share was wider than year-ago level.
The Deerfield, Illinois-based company has been witnessing negative
comps since the last quarter after four consecutive quarters of
growth.
Although, Cosi is taking a series of initiatives to turn around,
we prefer to remain on the sidelines until those measures translate
into better numbers. At this hour of crisis, Stutz's exceptional
technical as well as managerial expertise may add value to Cosi's
performance.
Cosi currently retains a Zacks #4 Rank that translates into a
short-term Sell rating. We are also maintaining our long-term
Underperform recommendation on the stock.
COSI INC (
COSI
): Free Stock Analysis Report
DINEEQUITY INC (
DIN
): Free Stock Analysis Report
BRINKER INTL (
EAT
): Free Stock Analysis Report
WENDYS CO/THE (
WEN
): Free Stock Analysis Report
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