Red Lobster CEO using AI, nostalgia for greatest comeback in the history of restaurant industry

Red Lobster closed dozens of locations nationwide in May 2024 before filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.Now, the seafood chain’s 37-year-old chief executive officer says he’s planning “the greatest comeback in the history of the restaurant industry.”Damola Adamolekun, former CEO of P.F.

Chang’s, became Red Lobster’s new CEO in September 2024.Before that, he worked with Fortress Investment Group as it prepared to acquire the Florida-based restaurant chain.Prior to filing for bankruptcy, Red Lobster reportedly went through five CEOs in five years. While at Fortress, Adamolekun visited a variety of Red Lobster restaurants in secret to assess them.“It’s very easy for staff to disengage and check out,” he told Vanity Fair in an interview this month.

“But they hadn’t.I saw people that’d been there ten, 20, 30, 40 years.

There was a lot of love for the brand.What they needed was a north star.”He reportedly told 30,000 employees at a town hall that the company was “going to execute the greatest comeback in the history of the restaurant industry,” setting the tone for an aggressive turnaround effort.Many analysts and media reports have cited the company’s decision to make its endless shrimp promotion a permanent offering as one factor behind its financial troubles.

Endless shrimp did return to select Red Lobster locations earlier this year, but Adamolekun made it clear in a statement to Fox 13 in Florida that it would be for a limited time only.Prior to its bankruptcy filing, Red Lobster was also dealing with “the fallout from a 2014 move that sold off ownership of the chain’s real estate and saddled the company with lease payments,” FOX Business reported.In May, a Red Lobster restaurant touted as the chain’s oldest continuously operating location shut down in Florida after 56 years.“As part of the normal course of business, Red Lobster continuously evaluates restaurant performance and lease terms and may, from time ...