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Letter to the editor

Restaurant publication dubs Checkers 'Hot Again'

By SCOTT BARANCIK
Published June 6, 2005

Customers line up to place orders at a Checkers in St. Petersburg recently. The chain may have received a boost in plans to sell when it was honored with a "Hot Again' award by trade publication Nation's Restaurant News.

Restaurant publication dubs Checkers "Hot Again'

Nation's Restaurant News has taken a liking to Checkers Drive-In Restaurants. The praise couldn't come at a better time for the Tampa burger chain.

Last month, Checkers received NRN's 2005 "Hot Again" award. According to the publication's Web site, qualifying chains must be at least 10 years old, show double-digit sales and profit growth over the prior two years, display innovation and "have experienced a fairly significant downturn in success during the life of the operation." Sort of like those "comeback player of the year" awards they give to baseball players.

In April, the weekly publication named Aziz Hashim its franchisee entrepreneur of the year. Though his company, National Restaurant Development Inc. of Decatur, Ga., owns franchises from five different brands, Checkers is its largest, with 34 units across Arizona, California, Georgia and Tennessee and 20 to come over the next five years.

Both awards could serve Checkers well if it decides to market itself for sale. Last month, the Tampa operator of Checkers and Rally's drive-throughs said it had hired Citigroup Global Markets to explore strategic options.

Precisely who named Checkers "Hot Again" is not entirely clear. According to NRN's Web site, the winner is selected by the publication's editorial staff with the "Council of Sizzle" - an advisory board of six leading industry executives. But one of the six, called at random last week, said he had no involvement in the selection process and didn't know Checkers had won.

"I'm not really in the loop as to the winners," said Drew Nieporent, whose Myriad Restaurant Group manages a dozen "white tablecloth" establishments in New York. "They (NRN) don't have (the advisory board members) choose. They sort of bandy our name out there."

[Last modified June 6, 2005, 01:34:12]