Product Code Database
Sizzler USA Restaurants, Inc., doing business as Sizzler, is a United States–based restaurant chain with headquarters in Mission Viejo, California, with locations mainly in California, plus some in the nearby states of Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Idaho, Utah, and Oregon, as well as Puerto Rico. It is known for steak, seafood, and salad bar items.
Since 2023, Sizzler restaurants outside of the United States are owned by Thailand-based Minor International and are not related to the American firm.
In September 2020, Sizzler USA filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy due to the COVID-19 pandemic hurting sales. The bankruptcy filing does not affect the similarly named Minor International affiliated restaurants that are located outside of the United States. Sizzler USA emerged from bankruptcy in January 2023.
Into the early to mid-1980s, competition appeared: Ponderosa Steakhouse and Bonanza Steakhouse. After promotions, such as all-you-can-eat fried shrimp, the chain expanded its salad bar into a full buffet promoted as the "Buffet Court". Patrons began to use the buffet as a meal instead of an add-on to an entree. In response, Sizzler lowered the quality in other menu areas. Customers took notice, and Sizzler's reputation suffered.
Sizzler filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1996 ("to escape costly leases on unprofitable restaurants"), and closed over 130 of its locations. The company reemerged from Chapter 11 in 1997. During the late 1990s, new management upgraded the quality of food and increased prices. Twenty one locations closed in 2001. Sizzler began an image makeover circa 2002. A new restaurant concept was created, featuring a lighter and more open dining room. The changes were accompanied by a new menu. In an effort to return to its roots, Sizzler emphasized steaks, seafood, and the salad bar. While the all-you-can-eat buffet was phased out in some locations, it remained in many others.
In the 1990s, Sizzler ran upscale locations with the Buffalo Ranch Steakhouse brand.
Sizzler was sold to Pacific Equity Partners, an Australian-based investment firm, in 2005. In January 2008, Sizzler announced it was planning to take action against the Multi-State Lottery Association (MUSL) of Urbandale, Iowa, over the use of the name The Sizzler (Hot Lotto).
In June 2011, Sizzler USA announced that a US management group led by the Sizzler CEO would buy the American portion of the chain of 178 restaurants from Pacific Equity Partners with the remaining 100 restaurants located outside of the United States remaining with Pacific Equity Partners. The headquarters initially remained in Culver City, California, where the chain was founded, but moved to Mission Viejo, California, in 2012.
Sizzler has launched its "ZZ" food truck to expand sales and test market new dishes.
In September 2020, Sizzler USA announced that they had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, citing impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, namely forcing it to temporarily close its restaurants' dining rooms. The company also cited problems paying rent. Most of the company-owned restaurants are located in highly COVID-19 infected areas of California that did not even permit restaurants to partially open dining rooms as recently as September 2020. At the time of the bankruptcy filing, Sizzler had 107 locations in 10 states, with all but one location in Florida in states west of the Rocky Mountains in addition to several locations in Puerto Rico. This number is down from the 134 locations in 2018.
Post-COVID, Sizzler is still in operation and is attempting to rebuild its business with renovations, a new menu, and an advertising campaign.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the company experimented with the use of robotic waiters in the dining room in December 2020 to minimize physical contact between customers and restaurant staff. After the Thai government loosen COVID-19 dine-in restrictions in September 2021, Sizzler Thailand was able to reopen 54 out of a total of 60 restaurants for dine-in. Two months after reopening, the Thai franchise announced expansion plans of trying to open new 3-5 restaurants per year over the next three years. The franchise also announced plans of installing more robot food delivery systems within each restaurant which would minimize human contact between dine-in customers and the restaurant staff which would in turn lessen the transmission of COVID and other diseases.
By 2015, Collins Foods wrote down the value of Sizzler by AU$37.5 million. In an investors meeting by Collins Foods, CEO Graham Maxwell states: "We no longer consider Sizzler to be a strategic growth prospect in Australia and therefore we will not be investing further capital". Collins Foods began to close a number of Sizzler restaurants in Australia. Meanwhile, Collins Foods' Sizzler operations in Asia continued to thrive, with further expansion planned in China.
Collins Foods closed all of its remaining Sizzler restaurants in Australia in November 2020. Collins Foods said of the three restaurant brands that it operates, Sizzler had been hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2006, all 28 Sizzler restaurants across Australia suspended salad bar service after rat poison was found in two of their Brisbane restaurants. Sizzler Australia referred to the incidents as sabotage. The culprit turned out to be a woman described as being Mental illness.
|
|
