Cosi, Inc. Names Veteran Restaurant Executive Paul Bower Chief Development Officer

By: Così | 10 Shares 164 Reads

DEERFIELD, IL, Apr 21, 2008 (MARKET WIRE via COMTEX News Network) -- Cosi, Inc. (NASDAQ: COSI), the premium convenience restaurant company, today announced that it has named veteran restaurant executive Paul Bower to the position of Chief Development Officer, effective immediately. As Chief Development Officer, Bower will have responsibility for Cosi's real estate and business development strategy with direct oversight for franchise sales, restaurant development, construction and facilities.

With the addition of Bower's more than 20 years of restaurant industry experience, Cosi's executive management team has more than 100 years of restaurant industry experience.

Bower's industry experience includes serving as Vice President of Development for Redbox, a leading national DVD rental company with over 7,000 locations. He was an original member of the management team that guided Redbox, a joint venture of McDonald's Corporation, from concept inception through its rapid expansion phase. Prior to that, Bower worked for 20 years in various positions within McDonald's Corporation's Restaurant Development team, primarily focused on real estate management and expansion. His progressive career path included positions of Divisional Real Estate Director and Senior Director, New Business Development. He also served as Vice President of Real Estate for Donatos Pizza Corporation, a fast casual restaurant concept which was a former wholly owned subsidiary of McDonald's Corporation.

"We are proud that Cosi has attracted Paul Bower, a seasoned development executive in our industry. Moreover, we are enormously excited to marry Paul's experience and expertise with Cosi's strong brand and growth opportunity," said James Hyatt, Cosi's President and Chief Executive Officer. "Further, his senior experience with national branded restaurants is consistent with Cosi's executive management profile and is another strong demonstration of our commitment to growing Cosi for the benefit of our shareholders, franchise partners, employees and guests."

"Joining Cosi's executive team is the perfect opportunity for me. The premium convenience segment far and away is the most exciting in the restaurant industry, and Cosi's high quality guest experience, leadership, resources and economic model make it an emerging force," said Bower. "I believe there is a huge, national growth opportunity for Cosi's fresh, distinctive tastes and sophisticated yet relaxing atmosphere. I'm impressed with how well Cosi knows its upscale guests, and I look forward to bringing my broad restaurant development experience to bear on the entire Cosi brand to support our growth."

About Cosi

Cosi (http://www.getcosi.com) is a national premium convenience restaurant chain that has developed featured foods built around a secret, generations-old recipe for crackly-crust flatbread. This artisan bread is freshly baked in front of customers throughout the day in open flame stone hearth ovens prominently located in each of the restaurants. Cosi's warm and urbane atmosphere is geared towards its sophisticated, upscale, urban and suburban guests. There are currently 102 company-owned and 42 franchise restaurants in eighteen states, the District of Columbia and the United Arab Emirates. The Cosi vision is to become America's favorite premium convenience restaurant by providing customers authentic, innovative, savory food while remaining an affordable luxury.

The Cosi menu features Cosi sandwiches, freshly tossed salads, Warm 'N Cosi MeltsCopyright, soups, Cosi bagels, flatbread pizzas, S'mores, snacks and other desserts, and a wide range of coffee beverages and specialty drinks. Cosi restaurants are designed to be welcoming and comfortable with an eclectic environment. Cosi's sights, sounds, and spaces create a tasteful, relaxed ambience that provides a fresh and new dining experience.

"Cosi," "Cosi w/hearth design," "Simply Good Taste," and related marks are registered trademarks of Cosi, Inc. Copyright Copyright 2008 Cosi, Inc. All rights reserved.

"SAFE HARBOR" STATEMENT UNDER THE PRIVATE SECURITIES LITIGATION REFORM ACT OF 1995. This press release contains statements that constitute forward-looking statements under the federal securities laws. Forward-looking statements are statements about future events and expectations and not statements of historical fact. The words "believe," "may," "will," "should," "anticipate," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "objective," "seek," "plan," "strive," or similar words, or negatives of these words, identify forward-looking statements. We qualify any forward-looking statements entirely by these cautionary factors. Forward-looking statements are based on management's beliefs, assumptions and expectations of our future economic performance, taking into account the information currently available to management. Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that may cause our actual results, performance or financial condition to differ materially from the expectations of future results, performance or financial condition we express or imply in any forward-looking statements. Factors that could contribute to these differences include, but are not limited to: the cost of our principal food products and supply and delivery shortages or interruptions; labor shortages or increased labor costs; changes in consumer preferences and demographic trends; expansion into new markets including foreign markets; our ability to locate suitable restaurant sites in new and existing markets and negotiate acceptable lease terms; competition in our markets, both in our business and in locating suitable restaurant sites; our operation and execution in new and existing markets; our ability to recruit, train and retain qualified corporate and restaurant personnel and management; cost effective and timely planning, design and build-out of restaurants; our ability to attract and retain qualified franchisees; the availability and cost of additional financing, both to fund our existing operations and to open new restaurants; the rate of our internal growth and our ability to generate increased revenue from our existing restaurants; our ability to generate positive cash flow from existing and new restaurants; the reliability of our customer and market studies; fluctuations in our quarterly results due to seasonality; increased government regulation and our ability to secure required governmental approvals and permits; our ability to create customer awareness of our restaurants in new markets; market saturation due to new restaurant openings; inadequate protection of our intellectual property; adverse weather conditions which impact customer traffic at our restaurants and adverse economic conditions. Further information regarding factors that could affect our results and the statements made herein are included in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Additional information is available on the company's website at http://www.getcosi.com in the investor relations section.

SOURCE: Cosi, Inc.

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