Così, Inc. Appoints Willy Nicolini as New Vice President of Operations
October 06 2015 - 4:00PM
Cosi, Inc. (NASDAQ:COSI), the fast-casual restaurant company, today
announced that it has appointed Willy Nicolini as Vice President of
Operations, effective September 30, 2015.
Nicolini, 59 years old, joined Cosi as Vice
President of Operations Services in March 2015, and has led
multiple operational initiatives critical to Cosi’s overall
turnaround strategy. Nicolini comes to Cosi with 30 years of
restaurant operations experience, including senior roles as Chief
Operating Officer and Senior Vice President of Operations in
turnaround and change management situations. Most recently,
Nicolini was the COO of CSPB Holdings (dba Pinkberry Frozen
Yogurt), in New York City, from July 2013, until he joined Cosi.
Prior to that, he served as Regional Vice President of Uno Chicago
Grill, in Boston, from November 2010 to June 2013, and as Senior
Vice President of Operations, Owner / Operator, of ABP Corporation
(Au Bon Pain), from 2003 to October 2010.
"I’m very excited to welcome Willy Nicolini into
the VP of Operations role effective immediately,” said R. J.
Dourney, Cosi’s CEO & President. “Willy will be
responsible for leading our restaurants to realize our vision to be
“the best restaurant company in America”. He will be ensuring our
execution exceeds our guests’ expectations and strengthens the
competitiveness and positioning of our brand, fosters an
environment where our people will excel, and delivers the financial
results we need to drive growth. His track record is outstanding,"
stated Dourney.
"I am excited to be the change agent of Cosi
operations,” said Nicolini. “We are making progress, and our focus
remains on people development, sales growth and profitability as we
lead this Company into the future,” Nicolini went on to
say.
Nicolini replaces Bryan Marks, Cosi's prior Vice
President of Operations. On September 30, 2015, Marks resigned
his position with the Company to pursue other opportunities,
effective October 14, 2015. "Bryan has been an important member of
our team over the past 18 months,” said Dourney. “We thank him for
his contributions, and we wish him success in his future
endeavors," stated Dourney.
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 79 Company-owned and
30 franchise restaurants operating in fifteen 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 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," "(Sun & Moon Design)" 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 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 athttp://www.getcosi.com in the investor relations
section.
CONTACT:
Miguel Rossy-Donovan
Chief Financial Officer
(857) 415-5020
InvestorRelations@getcosi.com