Potbelly Corporation (NASDAQ: PBPB) today announced the latest
in a series of recent key appointments to strengthen its leadership
team, with the appointment of Brandon Rhoten as Senior Vice
President and Chief Marketing Officer. The addition of Rhoten
builds on Potbelly’s focused effort to assemble a world-class
leadership team as the Company executes its turnaround
strategy.
With more than 15 years of restaurant industry and agency
experience, Rhoten brings a wealth of knowledge and insight from
his previous marketing and branding roles. He will report directly
to Alan Johnson, President and Chief Executive Officer of Potbelly.
Rhoten will have oversight of all aspects of Potbelly’s marketing,
including brand strategy, digital marketing, social media,
research, loyalty, direct marketing and advertising.
Rhoten joins Potbelly from Papa John’s International, Inc.,
where he served as Global Chief Marketing Officer. Prior to Papa
John’s, Rhoten was Vice President of Advertising, Media and
Digital/Social at Wendy’s International, where his team received
industrywide recognition for its highly successful digital/social
media campaigns, which helped lead the brand turnaround. Rhoten
started his career in marketing at the advertising agency Gyro.
Johnson said, “The kind of marketer who would have Boyz II Men
sing to a cheeseburger and give a year of chicken nuggets to a high
schooler for earning the most retweets in history will definitely
bring the quirky fun back to Potbelly. Brandon’s experience and
approach are perfectly aligned with the direction we are setting to
expand our brand presence in a world where social and digital drive
the conversation. We look forward to leveraging his many years of
creativity, brand strategy, bold and disruptive marketing, and
success with other well-known consumer brands. This is an exciting
time for Potbelly.”
“The second you walk through the door of a Potbelly, it’s clear
this place is like no other sandwich restaurant,” Rhoten said.
“Potbelly is THE brand in the space that can truly be interesting.
I’m excited to join the team so we can make the sandwich category
irresistible for consumers again.”
Johnson continued, “The addition of Brandon is just the most
recent action that we have taken to build out the right leadership
team required to execute our strategy to turn around the business.
Over the past few months, we have added talented and experienced
leaders to drive our franchise development, our off-premise
business, our menu innovation and now our brand marketing to the
next level.”
Potbelly has successfully recruited several highly accomplished
restaurant executives with deep expertise in franchise,
off-premise, culinary and marketing. Key additions include:
- Jeff Welch, Senior Vice President of
Franchise Development, brings to Potbelly over 30 years of
franchise, real estate and operations experience across
organizations such as Krispy Kreme, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and KFC.
Welch has full responsibility for franchising, including developing
and executing the vision, strategy and tactical plan to deliver
long-term profitable and sustainable growth. His efforts will build
a stronger foundation for franchise expansion, allowing for
accelerated growth and an increased mix of franchised units.
- Debbie White, Vice President of
Off-Premise, joins Potbelly with over 25 years of sales and
marketing leadership roles across PepsiCo, Taco Bell and Domino’s
Pizza. With a craveable product that travels well and is perfect
for many occasions, Potbelly is vastly underpenetrated in its
off-premise business. White’s primary focus will be to capture the
significant growth potential across all dayparts in catering,
delivery, grab & go, and curbside pickup.
- Chef Ryan LaRoche, Vice President of
Culinary Innovation, is a Michelin-starred chef with over 20 years
of success in culinary production from fine dining to fast casual.
He served as Executive Chef at Park Hyatt Washington, was Executive
Sous Chef to legendary chef Joël Robuchon and most recently was
Vice President of Culinary Operations at Mariano’s. LaRoche brings
a chef-inspired perspective to menu design and product innovation
that will let Potbelly embrace its unique, quirky nature through
fun and interesting new ways to excite its customers and make
Potbelly’s menu even more craveable.
Johnson concluded, “We are excited to have Brandon, Jeff, Debbie
and Chef Ryan join the Potbelly team. We remain focused on building
the right team to establish the foundation to reposition Potbelly
for sustainable profitable growth over the long term. I am
confident that our best days are ahead of us.”
About Potbelly Sandwich
Shop
Potbelly Corporation is a fast-growing neighborhood sandwich
concept that has been feeding customers’ smiles with warm, toasty
sandwiches, signature salads, hand-dipped shakes and other fresh
menu items, customized just the way customers want them, for more
than 40 years. Potbelly promises Fresh, Fast & Friendly service
in an environment that reflects the local neighborhood. Since
opening its first shop in Chicago in 1977, Potbelly has expanded to
neighborhoods across the country – with more than 450 company-owned
shops in the United States. Additionally, Potbelly franchisees
operate more than 50 shops domestically, in Canada, the Middle
East, the United Kingdom and India. For more information, please
visit our website at www.Potbelly.com.
Forward-Looking
Statements
Certain statements in this press release contains
forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the
Securities Act of 1933, as amended, Section 21E of the Securities
Exchange Act of 1934, as amended and the Private Securities
Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements, written,
oral or otherwise made, represent the Company’s expectation or
belief concerning future events. Without limiting the foregoing,
the words “believes,” “expects,” “may,” “will,” “should,” “seeks,”
“intends,” “plans,” “strives,” “goal,” “estimates,” “forecasts,”
“projects” or “anticipates” or the negative of these terms and
similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking
statements. Forward-looking statements may include, among others,
statements relating to: our future financial position and results
of operations, business strategy, budgets, projected costs and
plans and objectives of management for future operations. By
nature, forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties
that could cause actual results to differ materially from those
projected or implied by the forward-looking statement, due to
reasons including, but not limited to, our ability to manage our
growth and successfully implement our business strategy; price and
availability of commodities; changes in labor costs; consumer
confidence and spending patterns; consumer reaction to
industry-related public health issues and perceptions of food
safety; and weather conditions. In addition, there may be other
factors of which we are presently unaware or that we currently deem
immaterial that could cause our actual results to be materially
different from the results referenced in the forward-looking
statements. All forward-looking statements contained in this press
release are qualified in their entirety by this cautionary
statement. Although we believe that our plans, intentions and
expectations are reasonable, we may not achieve our plans,
intentions or expectations. Forward-looking statements are based on
current expectations and assumptions and currently available data
and are neither predictions nor guarantees of future events or
performance. You should not place undue reliance on forward-looking
statements, which speak only as of the date hereof. See “Risk
Factors” and “Cautionary Statement on Forward-Looking Statements”
included in our most recent annual report on Form 10-K and other
risk factors described from time to time in subsequent quarterly
reports on Form 10-Q, all of which are available on our website at
www.Potbelly.com. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly
update or revise any forward-looking statement as a result of new
information, future events or otherwise, except as otherwise
required by law.
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version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180611006307/en/
Jacobson/RostSamantha Flynn,
312-274-3349SFlynn@JacobsonRost.comorPotbelly CorporationInvestor
Relations, 312-428-2950Investors@Potbelly.com
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