BJ's Restaurants, Inc. Holds Annual Meeting of Shareholders; Names New Chairman and Lead Independent Director
HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif.--(Business Wire)--
BJ's Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI) held its annual meeting of
shareholders on Wednesday, June 4, 2008. Shareholders re-elected Paul
A. Motenko, Jeremiah J. Hennessy, Gerald W. Deitchle, Peter A. Bassi,
Larry D. Bouts, Shann M. Brassfield, James A. Dal Pozzo, J. Roger King
and John F. Grundhofer to the Board of Directors to serve for one-year
terms until the next annual meeting. Additionally, shareholders also
ratified the selection of Ernst & Young LLP to serve as the Company's
independent registered public accounting firm for fiscal 2008.
The Company also announced that the board of directors has
unanimously elected Gerald W. (Jerry) Deitchle, President and CEO, to
the additional post of Chairman of the Board, and Peter A. (Pete)
Bassi as the board's lead independent director. "I am very grateful
that Paul Motenko and Jerry Hennessy, our co-founders and former
co-chairmen, will be continuing their valuable service and support to
BJ's as members of our board," commented Deitchle.
At the annual shareholders' meeting, BJ's leadership team
presented an update of the Company's strategic business and growth
plan. The slide presentation can be viewed on the "Investors" page of
the Company's website located at www.bjsrestaurants.com. "We remain
highly confident about BJ's opportunity to continue executing its
longer-term growth plan and thereby gain additional market share in
the estimated $90 billion casual dining segment of the restaurant
industry," said Deitchle. "With only 71 restaurants open today, we
believe that we are only about a fourth of the way to opening our
current estimate of approximately 300 domestic restaurants of various
site types and sizes. While the current operating environment remains
very difficult for casual dining restaurants in general, we believe
the BJ's restaurant concept is well positioned with greater quality,
differentiation and value compared to most of our 'mass market' casual
dining competitors and offers us a good opportunity to outperform our
similarly-situated peers during these challenging times."
BJ's Restaurants, Inc. currently owns and operates 71 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 (39), Texas (11),
Arizona (4), Colorado (3), Oregon (2), Nevada (2), Florida (4), Ohio
(2), Oklahoma (2), Kentucky (1) and Indiana (1). 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 2008, those regarding the effect of new
sales-building initiatives, as well as those regarding the number of
restaurants expected to be opened in 2008 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) our ability to manage an increasing number of
new restaurant openings, (ii) construction delays, (iii) labor
shortages, (iv) minimum wage increases, (v) food quality and health
concerns, (vi) factors that impact California, where 39 of our current
71 restaurants are located, (vii) restaurant and brewery industry
competition, (viii) impact of certain brewery business considerations,
including without limitation, dependence upon suppliers and related
hazards, (ix) consumer spending trends in general for casual dining
occasions, (x) potential uninsured losses and liabilities, (xi)
fluctuating commodity costs, the effect of any resulting menu price
increases on our sales, the availability of food in general and
certain raw materials related to the brewing of our handcrafted beers
and energy, (xii) trademark and servicemark risks, (xiii) government
regulations, (xiv) licensing costs, (xv) beer and liquor regulations,
(xvi) loss of key personnel, (xvii) inability to secure acceptable
sites, (xviii) limitations on insurance coverage, (xix) legal
proceedings, (xx) other general economic and regulatory conditions and
requirements, (xxi) the success of our key sales-building and related
operational initiatives and (xxii) 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.
For further information, please contact Greg Levin of BJ's
Restaurants, Inc. at (714) 500-2400.
BJ's Restaurants, Inc.
Greg Levin, 714-500-2400
Copyright Business Wire 2008
