Hungry Tiger’s Losses in 4th Period Nearly Doubled

Van Nuys-based Hungry Tiger Inc. lost nearly twice as much money during its fourth quarter ended Aug. 30 as it did in the same quarter last year, closing its most recent fiscal year $1.2 million in the red.

Sales for the last quarter were up 2%, but were down 4% on the year.

For the quarter, Hungry Tiger lost $299,000, or 10 cents a share, versus $152,000, or 5 cents a share, a year ago. Sales for the quarter were $15.2 million contrasted with $14.9 million a year ago.

For the year ended Aug. 30, Hungry Tiger lost $1.16 million, or 39 cents a share, contrasted with earnings of $515,000, or 18 cents a share, a year ago. Sales were $64.8 million versus $67.3 million last year.

“Hungry Tiger, like many other companies in the highly competitive restaurant industry, continued to see a shortfall in its customer counts and sales from last year’s levels,” company President Vincent Kikugawa said in a statement.

Hungry Tiger is a chain of 39 restaurants, most in California, Arizona, and Nevada. It has an agreement in principle to be acquired by W. R. Grace & Co., the New York conglomerate, which will trade 0.16092 shares of Grace stock for each of Hungry Tiger’s 3.26 million shares outstanding. Grace also has the option of buying 700,000 of the Hungry Tiger shares for $7 each in cash, instead of stock.