SHONEY'S CLOSES RESTAURANTS IN CAPE, MINER

Shoney's Restaurant, 161 West Drive in Cape Girardeau, has closed operations 16 years after it opened.

The local restaurant joins 72 other Shoney's restaurants that will close in 14 states by Halloween.

Shoney's opened here in 1983. It closed Monday.

Sandy McCaffrey, Shoney's representative, confirmed the three local closings Monday.

Also included in the latest closings were Shoney's restaurants at 1317 E. Malone in Miner and Carthage. No franchised restaurants were included in the closings. The Cape Girardeau restaurant was a franchised operation until 1995 when it was sold back to the company.

"The closing of the restaurants is a difficult but necessary decision," said Stephen C. Sanders, president and chief executive officer of Shoney's Restaurants.

McCaffrey said Shoney's is working with the employees at the restaurants to ease the transition. She said company representatives will meet with the employees to identify job opportunities at area Shoney's and other nearby restaurants.

Forty-seven full- and part-time employees worked at the Cape Girardeau store, and 34 employees worked at Miner.

Shoney's at Cape Girardeau was open Sunday, but when employees showed up for work Monday morning, they were told of the closing by a special "closing crew."

A half-dozen years ago, Shoney's Restaurants, headquartered in Nashville, Tenn., operated more than 1,700 restaurants in 33 states. This included Shoney's, Captain D's, Lee's Famous Recipe Chicken, Fifth Quarter restaurants and Pargo's.

Shoney's first restaurant was opened 40 years ago, in 1959. The chain grew fast, but the chain shrunk a couple of years ago and is shrinking again.

After the latest announcements of sales and closings Monday, Shoney's Inc. will be at 1,117 restaurants in 28 states -- 646 company-owned stores and 471 franchised restaurants.

The struggling family restaurant chain announced Monday it will close stores in Missouri, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.

Shoney's Inc. closed or sold 104 restaurants last year and had already closed 53 and sold 10 this year as part of a restructuring plan. Three years earlier the group sold off 310 stores, including Pargo's, Fifth Quarter and Lee's Famous Recipe, leaving the company only with its Shoney's and Captain D's.

"We need a certain (sales) volume level to be able to give the quality service we need to succeed," according to the Shoney's chairman of the board. "These locations didn't have the potential to get there."

He said some of the long-term savings from closing the under-performing restaurants will be invested into the company's Captain D's seafood chain, which he hopes will grow by 10 to 15 percent in the next 18 months.

During the third quarter ended Aug. 1, Shoney's announced a net loss of $17.5 million, or 35 cents a share on revenues of $230 million. That compares to a loss of $83.1 million during the third quarter last year, or $1.71 a share, on revenues of $277 million.