Acquisition Of Great Steak & Potato Restaurant Chain

By: The Great Steak & Potato Co. | 9 Shares 348 Reads

SCOTTSDALE, ARIZ (Thursday, April 01, 2004) - Kahala Corp. (KAHA.PK) (the "Company") - today announced it has closed its acquisition of Nicar Holding Co., which includes the franchiser of the quick service Great Steak & Potato restaurant chain, for an undisclosed amount. The Great Steak & Potato concept, which specializes in genuine Philadelphia Cheesesteak sandwiches, fresh-cut French fries, fresh-squeezed lemonade and baked potatoes with all of the toppings prepared to order in full view of the customer, was founded in 1982 in Dayton, Ohio by Nick Lanni, and has since expanded to approximately 260 franchised outlets across the United States and select foreign markets. Great Steak & Potato has been named # 1 Philly Cheesesteak Sandwiches in the annual "Franchise 500" edition of the nationally recognized Entrepreneur Magazine for the past several years, is routinely recognized as the industry leader in the Philly Cheesesteak category, and has plans to open 25 more franchised outlets by year end.
As the seventh QSR concept under the Kahala umbrella, the acquisition has boosted the overall number of Kahala franchised outlets to over 900, and has catapulted annual system wide sales to just over $450 million. Other Kahala concepts include Taco Time, Samurai Sam's Teriyaki Grill, Ranch * 1, Surf City Squeeze, Frullati Café and Rollerz.
Kevin Blackwell, the Company's Chairman and CEO, remarked "we are extremely excited to add the Great Steak & Potato brand, which specializes in freshly made to order quality food, to our portfolio of franchised quick service restaurants. The fit with our existing brands could not be better. With our extensive base of existing franchisees and recently expanded corporate infrastructure, we plan to aggressively grow the Great Steak & Potato brand across the country in both its traditional shopping mall locations and other new venues as both stand-alone units and cobranded sites with Kahala's other quick service concepts." Mr. Blackwell concluded, "with this addition of Great Steak & Potato, and the recent additions of Taco Time and Samurai Sam's, we believe Kahala has emerged as the leader in the multi-brand QSR category specializing in freshly prepared high quality foods."

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