Restaurant Group Reorganizes to Restructure Debt

Restaurant Enterprises Group, which is attempting to restructure $282.6 million in long-term debt, on Thursday announced a management reorganization. REG is the parent company of the El Torito, Coco’s, Carrows, Reuben’s and Charley Brown’s restaurants.

The reorganization was driven by “the current financial restructuring we are undertaking and the increasingly sophisticated demands of the marketplace,” said REG President and Chief Executive Norm Habermann.

Barry Krantz, president of the company’s family restaurant division, assumed the newly created position of chief operating officer. Mike Casey, El Torito division president, was elevated to executive vice president and chief financial officer.

Ken Harris, formerly president of the company’s restaurant services division, is now president of the newly combined Dinnerhouse Division, which includes the El Torito and Casa Gallardo chain and Reuben’s and Charley Brown’s restaurants.

Don McComas, formerly president of Carrows, is now president of El Torito. Jim Moore is president of the Far West Concepts traditional dinner-houses division, and Patti Johnson, formerly vice president and controller, was selected as senior vice president of operations support services, a new position.