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Così, Inc. Chief Financial Officer Resigns,
Company Appoints Interim Chief Financial
Officer
Così Board appoints ad hoc committee to oversee Hearthstone
merger
BOSTON, MA - January 22, 2015 -
Così, Inc. (NASDAQ: COSI), the fast casual restaurant company,
today announced that it has appointed Richard Bagge, 45, to serve
as Interim Chief Financial Officer, effective immediately,
following the resignation of Scott Carlock. Mr. Carlock
resigned as Chief Financial Officer of the Company on January 21,
2015, to pursue other opportunities. The Company has engaged
an executive search firm to commence a search for a new Chief
Financial Officer.
R. J. Dourney, the Company's
President and Chief Executive officer, said, "We appreciate Scott's
contributions to Cosi over the past several months as we relocated
our Support Center to Boston, completed a rights offering, and
implemented our strategy for building a stronger business. We
wish him well as he pursues other opportunities."
Mr. Bagge has served as the Chief
Financial Officer of Hearthstone Associates, LLC. ("Hearthstone"),
the Company's largest franchisee, since February, 2013. Prior
to joining Hearthstone, Mr. Bagge served as Vice President of
Finance and Controller for Canaccord Genuity, a publicly traded
investment bank focused on institutional sales and investment
banking. Prior to Canaccord, he served as Accounting Manager
for New England Restaurant Group, the then-parent company of
Bertucci's restaurants and New England franchisee of Chili's
restaurants based in Westborough, MA. Mr. Bagge has a
Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of
Massachusetts.
Mr. Dourney commented, "Mr. Bagge
knows Cosi well, he has been instrumental in Hearthstone's growth,
and I am confident he will lead the financial team and capably
fulfill the CFO role during this interim period." Mark
Demilio, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Company, added,
"Mr. Bagge is a talented and experienced financial executive, and
he has the full confidence of the Board and Cosi's senior
management team to maintain Cosi's momentum as the Company conducts
its search."
Given the interrelated nature of
the pending merger between Cosi and Hearthstone, the Company's
Board of Directors has formed an ad hoc committee comprised of Mark
Demilio, Chairman of the Board, and David Lloyd, Chairman of the
Audit Committee, to oversee the merger. The committee will
work with management and Company advisors to ensure the arms-length
nature of the transaction between the two companies.
Mr. Bagge was to become Vice
President - Real Estate and Development upon consummation of the
Hearthstone merger. Mr. Bagge will step into that role upon the
Company's appointment of a successor Chief Financial Officer.
About Così,
Inc.
Così®
(http://www.getcosi.com) is a national fast casual 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. Così's warm and urbane atmosphere is geared towards
its sophisticated, upscale, urban and suburban guests. There are
currently 64 Company-owned and 47 franchise restaurants operating
in sixteen states, the District of Columbia, the United Arab
Emirates, and Costa Rica. The Così® vision is to
become America's favorite fast casual restaurant by providing
customers authentic, innovative, savory food while remaining an
affordable luxury.
The Così® menu features
Così® sandwiches,
freshly-tossed salads, bowls, breakfast wraps, melts, soups,
Squagels®, flatbread
pizzas, S'mores, snacks and other desserts, and a wide range of
coffee and coffee-based drinks and other specialty beverages.
Così® restaurants
are designed to be welcoming and comfortable with an eclectic
environment. Così's sights, sounds, and spaces create a tasteful,
relaxed ambience that provides a fresh and new dining
experience.
"Così," and related marks are
registered trademarks of Così, Inc. in the U.S.A. and certain other
countries. Copyright © 2015 Così, 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 and interruptions; labor shortages or increased labor
costs; changes in demographic trends and consumer tastes and
preferences, including changes resulting from concerns over
nutritional or safety aspects of beef, poultry, produce, or other
foods or the effects of food-borne illnesses, such as E. coli, "mad
cow disease" and avian influenza or "bird flu"; competition in our
markets, both in our business and in locating suitable restaurant
sites; our operation and execution in new and existing markets;
expansion into new markets including foreign markets; our ability
to attract and retain qualified franchisees and our franchisees'
ability to open restaurants on a timely basis; our ability to
locate suitable restaurant sites in new and existing markets and
negotiate acceptable lease terms; 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; fluctuations in our quarterly results
due to seasonality; increased government regulation and our ability
to secure required government approvals and permits; our ability to
create customer awareness of our restaurants in new markets; the
reliability of our customer and market studies; cost effective and
timely planning, design and build out of restaurants; our ability
to recruit, train and retain qualified corporate and restaurant
personnel and management; market saturation due to new restaurant
openings; inadequate protection of our intellectual property; our
ability to obtain additional capital and financing; 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 Cosi, Inc. website at www.getocis.com.
This
announcement is distributed by NASDAQ OMX Corporate Solutions on
behalf of NASDAQ OMX Corporate Solutions clients.
The issuer of this announcement warrants that they are solely
responsible for the content, accuracy and originality of the
information contained therein.
Source: Così, Inc via Globenewswire
HUG#1888737