CONTACT:
Scott Carlock
Chief Financial Officer
(857) 415-5020
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Così, Inc. Raises
$20 Million in Gross Proceeds from Rights Offering and Announces
Grand Opening of New Restaurant in Chicago, Illinois
BOSTON, MA, December 23, 2014 --
Così, Inc. (NASDAQ: COSI), the fast casual restaurant company,
today announced the final results of its rights offering ("Rights
Offering"), as well as the grand opening of a new Company-owned
restaurant in Chicago, Illinois.
Final Results of
the Rights Offering
Cosi, Inc. was recently informed by the subscription agent of the
final results of the Rights Offering, which shows that the Company
received subscriptions (including both basic and oversubscriptions)
for a total of 15,974,390 shares, which exceeded the maximum
offering of 13,333,333 shares by 2,641,057 shares.
Consequently, those stockholders who oversubscribed will have their
oversubscriptions reduced pro rata based on the basic holdings of
all stockholders who oversubscribed, subject to the 19.9% cap for
any one holder and its affiliates.
The Company expects the transfer
agent to begin distributing the shares and refund checks for
unfulfilled oversubscriptions to stockholders today. As a
result of the Rights Offering, Cosi's common stock will increase by
13,333,329 shares (four less than the amount offered due to
rounding). The Company has received the sales proceeds from
the Rights Offering, and estimates the net proceeds to be
approximately $19.7 million.
Grand Opening of
a New Restaurant
The Company opened a new Company-owned restaurant at Northwestern
Memorial Hospital Outpatient Care Pavilion in downtown Chicago,
Illinois, on Friday, December 19, 2014. Guests can expect a
refreshed dining experience in the Company's newest urban
location. We are excited to bring Cosi® to Northwestern
Memorial Hospital and this Streeterville neighborhood, as we take
"another step forward in the growth of our business," said RJ
Dourney, President and CEO of Cosi, Inc. "We look forward to
serving our hand-crafted and hearth-fired menu items, including our
freshly-baked artisan flatbread, and providing a warm, friendly
customer experience to each and every guest."
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
48 franchise restaurants operating in sixteen states, the District
of Columbia, Costa Rica and the United Arab Emirates. 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 a welcoming and comfortable environment. Così's
sights, sounds, and spaces create a tasteful, relaxed ambience that
provides a fresh and new dining experience.
"Così," "(Sun & Moon Design)"
and related marks are registered trademarks of Così, Inc. in the
U.S.A. and certain other countries. Copyright © 2014 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 results being reported in this release are unaudited and
subject to change; 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 Così's website at
http://www.getcosi.com in the investor relations section.
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#1883476