Marie Callender Owners May Sell

Marie Callender Restaurants & Bakeries said Thursday that the owners are considering selling the well-known chain, which began churning out pies as a family business 50 years ago.

Marie Callender’s majority owner, a New York investment firm, is looking to cash in on its investment, said Len Dreyer, the chain’s chief executive.

“It reaches a certain point in time and they want to get liquidity,” he said. “Perhaps selling the company might be the best alternative.”

The chain said its parent company, Wilshire Restaurant Group of New York, has hired Montgomery Securities in San Francisco to explore “various strategic alternatives, including the sale of the company.”

Jason Hutchison, an investment banker with Montgomery Securities, would not speculate Thursday on what options will be available to the company.

“Obviously, the pies are very well known,” he said. “Their idea is, is there anything we can do with this brand name?”

The Orange-based company has come a long way since 1948, when Marie Callender herself began making pies in a rented Quonset hut in Long Beach, sometimes baking throughout the night. Aided by husband Cal and son Don, she initially sold her pies wholesale to restaurants.

Later, the family decided to open its own pie shops. The first one opened in 1962 on Tustin Avenue in Orange. First-time visitors were treated to a free slice of pie and a cup of coffee. Soup and sandwiches then were added to the menu. As the chain developed, the restaurants got bigger and the menus more extensive.

Today, Marie Callender has 161 restaurants and nearly 10,000 employees.

The family sold its business in 1986 to Ramada Inns, which three years later sold it to Wilshire Restaurant Group.

Marie Callender died in 1995 at the age of 88.

From 1989 to 1993, no new restaurants were opened, Dreyer said, but that changed when the private equity investment firm Saunders, Karp & Megrue bought a controlling interest in 1993.

By the end of this year, the company expects to be operating 166 restaurants, up from 146 five years ago. Next year, it plans to add a dozen more restaurants, Dreyer said.

About 75% of the restaurants are in California, but the company has also moved into Washington, Oregon and Texas. Marie Callender also is considering expanding into Oklahoma.

“We’re moving slowly eastward,” Dreyer said.

A change of ownership would not change the company’s operations, he said.