Future of Landry's Restaurants and its impact on WDW

PeoplemoverTTA

PeoplemoverTTA

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
I was reading this article, and noticed Landry's Restaurants listed as one of 15 companies that "may not" make it through 2009.

Landry's Restaurants. (LNY; about 17,000 employees; stock down 66%). This restaurant chain, which operates Chart House, Rainforest Café, and other eateries, needs $400 million in new financing to finalize a buyout deal dating to last June. If lenders come through, the company should have enough cash to ride out the recession. But at least two banks have already balked, leading to downgrades of the company's debt and the prospect of a cash-flow crunch.
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I'm thinking about the possible impact this could have on WDW. I know it's all conjecture at this point, but losing 4 on property restaurants (Yak & Yeti, 2x Rainforest, and T-Rex...that's all of them, right?) who I'm sure pay a good penny to WDW, would not be a good thing.

I wonder if WDW has some sort of a backup plan for this (surely they know the situation for Landry's right now), or what the heck they would do if 4 high-capacity and popular restaurants were suddenly closed. Anyone have some insight into this?
 
Mr.EPCOT

Mr.EPCOT

Active Member
I wouldn't be surprised to see them just immediately take over operation of Yak & Yeti, Portobello, and Fulton's, while letting the Rainforest Cafes and T-Rex Cafe close to be replaced, or perhaps operate them under a different name with minimal changes for a short time while replacements are devised.

It'd be interesting to watch what would happen to Downtown Disney if these restaurants went under. Hopefully, it would make Disney rethink the overhaul of Pleasure Island more rationally.
 
JerseySkiddie

JerseySkiddie

New Member
I saw the same article and thought of WDW right away too. I'm sure Disney has some sort of plan in place if Landry's runs into major problems.

The same article also said that Dollar/Thrifty are in trouble. I almost always use Dollar when I get a car on my WDW trips so I hope they can pull through the economic mess and survive.
 
Monty

Monty

Brilliant...and Canadian
In the Parks
No
Hard to say what impact, if any. Landry's folding could have any of a variety of outcomes. They could close all four or sell them to another company. Since all four WDW restaurants have significant traffic, I doubt the individual restaurants are losing money, so it is reasonable that landry's could sell off other locations that may not be as profitable to over their current [or potential] cash flow problems and weather the recession on the sites that are making a profit. A lot depends on the management team at Landry's as well as what kind of money they could raise by partial liquidation of assets.

Without knowing what their complete finances are and how brave or risk-averse their management might be, it's impossible to say.
 
jt04

jt04

Well-Known Member
Mr.EPCOT said:
I wouldn't be surprised to see them just immediately take over operation of Yak & Yeti, Portobello, and Fulton's, while letting the Rainforest Cafes and T-Rex Cafe close to be replaced, or perhaps operate them under a different name with minimal changes for a short time while replacements are devised.

It'd be interesting to watch what would happen to Downtown Disney if these restaurants went under. Hopefully, it would make Disney rethink the overhaul of Pleasure Island more rationally.
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You forgot to use this: :rolleyes:
 
PeoplemoverTTA

PeoplemoverTTA

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Mr.EPCOT said:
It'd be interesting to watch what would happen to Downtown Disney if these restaurants went under. Hopefully, it would make Disney rethink the overhaul of Pleasure Island more rationally.
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You would think...transitioning so much of DTD (especially PI) to third-party vendors in a tanking economy doesn't like the best idea now, to put it mildly.

The Disney "brand" is a proven commodity, yet they insist on converting DTD to third-party junk shops...I just don't get it (although to be fair, Landry's seems to do a pretty good job with their restaurants...I forgot about Fulton's and Portobello - is it 6 then? Even more of a potential impact).
 
yankspy

yankspy

Well-Known Member
MontyMon said:
Hard to say what impact, if any. Landry's folding could have any of a variety of outcomes. They could close all four or sell them to another company. Since all four WDW restaurants have significant traffic, I doubt the individual restaurants are losing money, so it is reasonable that landry's could sell off other locations that may not be as profitable to over their current [or potential] cash flow problems and weather the recession on the sites that are making a profit. A lot depends on the management team at Landry's as well as what kind of money they could raise by partial liquidation of assets.

Without knowing what their complete finances are and how brave or risk-averse their management might be, it's impossible to say.
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That is more than likely. You may see them file for bankruptcy. The Disney locations would be safe since all 4 of those locations do well.
 
XS-Spence

XS-Spence

New Member
Mr.EPCOT said:
I wouldn't be surprised to see them just immediately take over operation of Yak & Yeti, Portobello, and Fulton's, while letting the Rainforest Cafes and T-Rex Cafe close to be replaced, or perhaps operate them under a different name with minimal changes for a short time while replacements are devised.

It'd be interesting to watch what would happen to Downtown Disney if these restaurants went under. Hopefully, it would make Disney rethink the overhaul of Pleasure Island more rationally.
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Levy Restaurants owns Portobello Yacht Club and Fulton's Crab House. I work at Yak & Yeti and our numbers are up from last year despite the economy. The only one not doing great as far as I hear is T-Rex. Even if the company files bankruptcy I think the Rainforest Cafes at DAK and DTD and Y&Y are safe.
 
PeoplemoverTTA

PeoplemoverTTA

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
XS-Spence said:
Levy Restaurants owns Portobello Yacht Club and Fulton's Crab House. I work at Yak & Yeti and our numbers are up from last year despite the economy. The only one not doing great as far as I hear is T-Rex. Even if the company files bankruptcy I think the Rainforest Cafes at DAK and DTD and Y&Y are safe.
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Thanks for sharing from a CM perspective :wave:.

Interesting about T-Rex. My cousin said it was a fun place to eat, but she really wasn't impressed with the food.
 
ClemsonTigger

ClemsonTigger

Naturally Grumpy
yankspy said:
That is more than likely. You may see them file for bankruptcy. The Disney locations would be safe since all 4 of those locations do well.
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It doesn't much matter how well these individual sites do....if the corporation files for bankrupcy....these will potentially close as well.

Many, many more unfortunate situations like this will become the norm over the coming year. :(
 
goodtimes5286

goodtimes5286

New Member
I think it depends on the contract Disney has with Fultons and the whole bailout thing. If Fultons files for chapter 11, Disney can't just have the rainforest cafe's and T-REX's still opperating. The employees are hired and paid by fultons, the food is ordered from fultons supplier, it is shipped by someone who has a contract with fultons, etc. You cant just take over the bussiness when it crumbles b/c the bussiness is on your properity. Disney could more then likely take over the Y&Y though, change the name, bring in there foodm and be in good shape, but as for the RFC's and TREX, idk that issue is really dicey and you'd need to be in the know to see what the contract says....

....just my two pennies....
 
yankspy

yankspy

Well-Known Member
ClemsonTigger said:
It doesn't much matter how well these individual sites do....if the corporation files for bankrupcy....these will potentially close as well.

Many, many more unfortunate situations like this will become the norm over the coming year. :(
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Perhaps. I think it is a little premature to make any judgments based on one article. I shall watch this one rather closely. :)
 
WDW1974

WDW1974

Well-Known Member
Just to be clear because some folks don't appear to be, but Fulton's (as well as Portobello and Wolfgang Puck are all run by Levy Restaurants NOT Landry's ... they are also worlds better than any of Landry's WDW operations).

That Landry's is struggling isn't surprising. It's kind of hard to think about dining out when you're about to lose your home.

I would think they'd wind up either finding the financing, drastically cutting back units (they sold Joe's Crab Shack, one of their largest chains in 2007) and if worse came to worse filing while staying largely in business.

But in a worse case, Disney would have to take over ops because they couldn't likely have those huge holes ... and RC's are also located in Anaheim, Paris and Tokyo Disney resorts.

As an aside, right now DD in Anaheim has 4-5 major vacancies after companies have gone belly up.

So, it will be interesting to see what happens there as well.
 

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