Franchisee closing LV’s four Kenny Rogers restaurants

Grace Leong

Thursday, Dec. 14, 2000 | 11:24 a.m.

All four Kenny Rogers Roasters restaurants in the Las Vegas Valley are scheduled to be closed by Dec. 23.

Franchisee Rogers Nevada Inc. said it is ending its contract with a subsidiary of Nathan's Famous Inc., a Westbury, N.Y.-based fast food chain that acquired Roasters Corp. in April 1999.

Roasters Corp. of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., the former operator of Kenny Rogers Roasters, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 1997. Roasters Corp. is now known as NF Roasters Corp.

A Nathan's official said the company doesn't know of any potential buyers for the Las Vegas franchise, but said the situation could change next year.

Ralph Good, general manager of Rogers Nevada Inc., the local franchisee of NF Roasters Corp., said two Kenny Rogers wood-fire rotisserie chicken restaurants were closed on Dec. 3 and Dec. 10. There are 150 workers in the four Las Vegas restaurants, and most have been placed with the remaining two restaurants, he said.

"Those workers are allowed to work until the very end on Dec. 23. The owner of the franchisee is taking care of their medical benefits until the end of January," Good said. "Kentucky Fried Chicken also helped out, and many of our workers are planning to join them. So far, 30-35 workers left on their own accord. "

Good said: "It's disappointing. There are many reasons for the restaurants' closure. The owner of the franchise lives out in Kentucky. He's now 83 years old and he's not here on a regular basis and it's hard for him to continue operating from afar."

Good said NF Roasters failed to provide the necessary advertising and promotion of new products to retain customers.

"We're a franchise. When we pay fees, we expect to get certain benefits. But so far, NF Roasters did not do what we would have expected to help support the business. It's not that NF Roasters didn't do anything to help us. It was just taking them too long to solve the problems that existed at Roasters Corp. when they took over the company."

"The Kenny Rogers Roasters concept is a good one, but there are problems. We're just selling poultry, and trying to get a lot of volume out of one product," Good said. "We have to have variety to entice people to come to our restaurant. We were selling barbequed beef and pork ribs, which are a high-priced item. There's just not enough small-priced items to keep people coming here on a regular basis."

"The Nathan's Famous concept is totally different from what we're used to. Their idea of advertising is different from ours in that they didn't believe in advertising in media other than print, while we felt television and radio were viable," he said.

Randy Watts, Nathan's Famous Inc.'s senior director of franchise operations, could not be reached for comment on Good's complaints about lack of support by Nathan's Famous.