AMC chain taps former coffee exec as CEO
Would you like an espresso and a biscotti to go with your Milk Duds?
Reaching outside the insular movie theater business, AMC Entertainment Inc. named Gerardo Lopez, a former executive at Starbucks Corp. and Seattle’s Best Coffee, as chief executive. He succeeds Peter Brown, who is retiring after 19 years with the Kansas City, Mo., movie theater chain. Lopez also has been a manager at Frito-Lay, Pepsi-Cola and Procter & Gamble Co.
Suggesting what may be in store, AMC said that Lopez had a “proven history of creating dynamic strategic partnerships and intensely focusing on the customer experience.”
AMC, one of the largest theater chains in the country with annual revenue of about $2.3 billion, lost $82 million in the third quarter partly because of escalating costs.
In October AMC dropped plans for an initial public stock offering as a result of the weak market for new equities. Privately held AMC, whose local theaters include ones in Santa Monica and Century City, is controlled by J.P. Morgan Partners and Apollo Management.
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