El Pollo Loco Holdings, Inc. (“El Pollo Loco” or the “Company”)
(Nasdaq: LOCO) announced today that its Board of Directors has
appointed Elizabeth (“Liz”) Williams as the Company’s new Chief
Executive Officer and as a member of its Board of Directors,
effective March 11, 2024. Ms. Williams will succeed Maria
Hollandsworth, who has served as the Company’s interim Chief
Executive Officer since November 3, 2023. Ms. Hollandsworth has
been appointed as President of El Pollo Loco and will also continue
to serve as the Company’s Chief Operating Officer.
Ms. Williams, age 47, brings to El Pollo Loco significant
experience leading high-growth, multi-unit retail, restaurant and
service businesses. Most recently, Ms. Williams served as the Chief
Executive Officer of Outfox Hospitality, parent company of Foxtrot,
a high-growth modern café and convenience store, and Dom’s Kitchen
and Market. Prior to Foxtrot, she led innovative brands like Drybar
and Hart House.
Ms. Williams has extensive restaurant experience working closely
with franchise partners to accelerate growth. She spent ten years
with Yum! Brands and Taco Bell between 2010 and 2020, holding
various leadership positions including Chief Financial Officer and
President of Taco Bell International. During her tenure, she was
responsible for the brand strategy, growth, and performance of the
international business across 30 countries, and drove notable
operational improvements along with sales and profit growth.
“We are excited to welcome Liz Williams as our new Chief
Executive Officer,” said William Floyd, Chairman of the El Pollo
Loco Board. “Throughout her career, Liz has demonstrated her
ability to accelerate growth in food and beverage brands while
simultaneously improving financial performance. We believe she has
the skills and experience necessary to lead El Pollo Loco as we
capitalize on the significant opportunity ahead of us.”
Floyd continued, “We would also like to express our deep
appreciation to Maria for her leadership as Interim Chief Executive
Officer over the past three months. We are excited to benefit from
her continued leadership as she helps craft and execute on our
strategic vision as President and Chief Operating Officer of El
Pollo Loco.”
Ms. Williams commented, “I am truly honored to join El Pollo
Loco and be named Chief Executive Officer of this one-of-a-kind
brand. El Pollo Loco’s fire-grilled chicken and high-quality, fresh
ingredients create a better-for-you brand that is unparalleled in
the restaurant industry. I believe that the opportunities to
accelerate the growth of our brand are substantial. While the
Company was born in Mexico over 40 years ago and has become an
iconic West Coast brand, I believe we are just getting started. I
look forward to working with the Company’s exceptional management
team, our team members, suppliers, and franchise partners as we
execute on our strategic vision and write the next chapter for El
Pollo Loco.”
About Elizabeth WilliamsLiz Williams, 47, was
the Chief Executive Officer of Outfox Hospitality, parent company
of Foxtrot, a high-growth modern café and convenience store, from
April 2023 to February 2024, and its President and Chief Financial
Officer from June 2022 to April 2023. In December 2023 she led the
merger with Dom’s Kitchen and Market to form Outfox Hospitality.
Prior to Foxtrot, she served as the Chief Executive Officer of
Hart House, LLC, a vegan quick serve restaurant chain, from July
2021 to June 2022. Ms. Williams was the Chief Executive Officer of
Drybar Holdings, LLC, an owner of hair salons providing blowouts
and hair styling products and accessories, from June 2020 to
2021. From January 2018 to January 2020, she was President of Taco
Bell International, part of YUM! Brands Inc., a leading operator of
quick service restaurants. Prior to this role, Ms. Williams served
as Chief Financial Officer of Taco Bell Corp. from October 2013 to
January 2018 and Vice President, Financial Planning & Analysis
from 2011 to 2013. Ms. Williams spent six years at Boston
Consulting Group in the Consumer and Retail practice. She has a
bachelor’s degree from the University of Texas and an MBA from
Northwestern Kellogg School of Management. Ms. Williams currently
serves on the boards of Stitch Fix (Nasdaq: SFIX), the leading
online personalized styling service for men, women and kids, and
Viant (Nasdaq: DSP), an advertising software provider.
About El Pollo LocoEl Pollo Loco (Nasdaq:LOCO)
is the nation’s leading fire-grilled chicken restaurant chain
renowned for its masterfully citrus-marinated, fire-grilled chicken
and handcrafted entrees using fresh ingredients inspired by Mexican
recipes. With more than 490 company-owned and franchised
restaurants in Arizona, California, Nevada, Colorado, Texas, Utah,
and Louisiana, El Pollo Loco is expanding its presence in key
markets through a combination of company and existing and new
franchisee development. Visit us on our website at
ElPolloLoco.com.
Forward-Looking StatementsThis press release
contains forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and
uncertainties. All statements other than statements of historical
fact included in this press release are forward-looking statements.
Forward-looking statements discuss our current expectations and
projections relating to our financial condition, results of
operations, plans, objectives, future performance and business. You
can identify forward-looking statements because they do not relate
strictly to historical or current facts. These statements may
include words such as “aim,” “anticipate,” “believe,” “estimate,”
“expect,” “forecast,” “outlook,” “potential,” “project,”
“projection,” “plan,” “intend,” “seek,” “may,” “could,” “would,”
“will,” “should,” “can,” “can have,” “likely,” the negatives
thereof and other words and terms of similar meaning in connection
with any discussion of the timing or nature of future operating or
financial performance or other events. They appear in a number of
places throughout this press release and include our 2023 outlook
and statements regarding the expected results of our initiatives
and our ability to capture opportunities and attract franchisees,
as well as our ongoing business intentions, beliefs or current
expectations concerning, among other things, our results of
operations, financial condition, sales levels, liquidity,
prospects, growth, strategies and the industry in which we operate.
All forward-looking statements are subject to risks and
uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially
from those that we expected.
While we believe that our assumptions are reasonable, we caution
that it is very difficult to predict the impact of known factors,
and it is impossible for us to anticipate all factors that could
affect our actual results. All forward-looking statements are
expressly qualified in their entirety by these cautionary
statements. You should evaluate all forward-looking statements made
in this press release in the context of the risks and uncertainties
that could cause outcomes to differ materially from our
expectations. These factors include, but are not limited to: global
economic or other business conditions that may affect the desire or
ability of our customers to purchase our products such as
inflationary pressures, high unemployment levels, increases in gas
prices, and declines in median income growth, consumer confidence
and consumer discretionary spending; our ability to open new
restaurants in new and existing markets, including difficulty in
finding sites and in negotiating acceptable leases; our ability to
compete successfully with other quick-service and fast casual
restaurants; vulnerability to changes in political and economic
conditions and consumer preferences; our ability to attract,
develop, assimilate and retain employees; vulnerability to
conditions in the greater Los Angeles area and to natural disasters
given the geographic concentration and real estate intensive nature
of our business; the impacts of the uncertainty regarding a
potential resurgence of COVID-19 or another pandemic, epidemic or
infectious disease outbreak on our company, our employees, our
customers, our partners, our industry and the economy as a whole,
as well as our franchisees’ ability to operate their individual
restaurants without disruption; the possibility that we may
continue to incur significant impairment of certain of our assets,
in particular in our new markets; changes in food and supply costs,
especially for chicken, labor, construction and utilities; social
media and negative publicity, whether or not valid, and our ability
to respond to and effectively manage the accelerated impact of
social media; our ability to continue to expand our digital
business, delivery orders and catering; and other risks set forth
in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission from
time to time, including under Item 1A, Risk Factors in our annual
report on Form 10 K for the year ended December 28, 2022, as such
risk factors may be amended, supplemented or superseded from time
to time by other reports we file with the Securities and Exchange
Commission, all of which are or will be available online at
www.sec.gov.
We caution you that the important factors referenced above may
not contain all of the factors that are important to you. In
addition, we cannot assure you that we will realize the results or
developments we expect or anticipate or, even if substantially
realized, that they will result in the consequences we anticipate
or affect us or our operations in the ways that we expect. The
forward-looking statements included in this press release are made
only as of the date hereof. We undertake no obligation to publicly
update or revise any forward-looking statement as a result of new
information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.
If we do update one or more forward-looking statements, no
inference should be made that we will make additional updates with
respect to those or other forward-looking statements. We qualify
all of our forward-looking statements by these cautionary
statements.
Investor Contact:Jeff
PriesterICRInvestors@elpolloloco.com
Media Contact:Glenda VaqueranoThe ID Agency
EPLmedia@theidagency.com
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