BJ's Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ: BJRI) today announced the appointment of
Wayne Jones as Executive Vice President and Chief Restaurant Operations
Officer, effective January 19, 2009. Jones, 49, has over 25 years of
casual dining restaurant management experience, with his last 19 years
at The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated, an operator of 159 high volume,
upscale casual dining restaurants. During his tenure at Cheesecake
Factory, Jones served in progressively responsible restaurant management
and leadership positions, with his last position as Vice President,
Operations Analysis on the corporate staff. His previous assignments at
Cheesecake Factory included restaurant general manager, area director
and regional vice president of operations.
"Wayne has the highly-desired skill set of being both a passionate, high
quality restaurateur and a proven restaurant business executive with
superior leadership and analytical capabilities,” commented Jerry
Deitchle, Chairman and CEO. "We are very fortunate to have him join BJ’s
executive team. Wayne’s many years of experience in playing key
operational roles in the successful national development of another high
quality, more complex restaurant concept and business model will be of
significant value to BJ’s as we continue to execute our expansion plan.”
Jones will join Senior Vice President Lon Ledwith, Regional Vice
Presidents Chris Pinsak, Steve Mintzer and Michele Maerz, and Vice
Presidents Nanette McWhertor, James Drake and Don Gardner on BJ’s
capable and experienced restaurant operations leadership team.
BJ's Restaurants, Inc. currently owns and operates 82 casual dining
restaurants under the BJ's Restaurant & Brewery, BJ's Restaurant &
Brewhouse or BJ's Pizza & Grill brand names. BJ's restaurants offer an
innovative and broad menu featuring award-winning, signature deep-dish
pizza complemented with generously portioned salads, appetizers,
sandwiches, soups, pastas, entrees and desserts. Quality, flavor, value,
moderate prices and sincere service remain distinct attributes of the
BJ's experience. The Company operates several microbreweries which
produce and distribute BJ's critically acclaimed handcrafted beers
throughout the chain. The Company's restaurants are located in
California (44), Texas (13), Arizona (5), Colorado (3), Oregon (2),
Nevada (2), Florida (4), Ohio (2), Oklahoma (2), Kentucky (1), Indiana
(1), Louisiana (1) and Washington (2). The Company also has a licensing
interest in a BJ's restaurant in Lahaina, Maui. Visit BJ's Restaurants,
Inc. on the Web at http://www.bjsrestaurants.com.
Certain statements in the preceding paragraphs and all other statements
that are not purely historical constitute "forward-looking statements"
for purposes of the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities and
Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and are intended to be covered by the
safe harbors created thereby. Such statements include, but are not
limited to, those regarding expected comparable restaurant sales growth
in future periods, those regarding the effect of new sales-building
initiatives, as well as those regarding the number of restaurants
expected to be opened in future periods and the timing and location of
such openings. These forward-looking statements involve known and
unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause actual
results to be materially different from those projected or anticipated.
Factors that might cause such differences include, but are not limited
to: (i) the effect of recent credit and equity market disruptions on our
ability to finance our continued expansion on acceptable terms, (ii) our
ability to manage an increasing number of new restaurant openings, (iii)
construction delays, (iv) labor shortages, (v) minimum wage increases,
(vi) food quality and health concerns, (vii) factors that impact
California, where 44 of our current 82 restaurants are located, (viii)
restaurant and brewery industry competition, (ix) impact of certain
brewery business considerations, including without limitation,
dependence upon suppliers and related hazards, (x) consumer spending
trends in general for casual dining occasions, (xi) potential uninsured
losses and liabilities, (xii) fluctuating commodity costs and
availability of food in general and certain raw materials related to the
brewing of our handcrafted beers and energy, (xiii) trademark and
servicemark risks, (xiv) government regulations, (xv) licensing costs,
(xvi) beer and liquor regulations, (xvii) loss of key personnel, (xviii)
inability to secure acceptable sites, (xix) limitations on insurance
coverage, (xx) legal proceedings, (xxi) other general economic and
regulatory conditions and requirements, (xxii) the success of our key
sales-building and related operational initiatives and (xxiii) numerous
other matters discussed in the Company's filings with the Securities and
Exchange Commission. BJ's Restaurants, Inc. undertakes no obligation to
update or alter its forward-looking statements whether as a result of
new information, future events or otherwise
