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Souplantation is no stranger to hot water, having survived overexpansion of its soup-and-salad restaurants and under-expansion of the economy.
But the newly public San Diego-based company, known formally as Garden Fresh Restaurant Corp., is betting that those wilted salad days are over.
Garden Fresh went to market on May 17, selling 1.5 million shares of stock over the counter for $9 per share, using the Nasdaq ticker symbol LTUS (the ticker symbol SALD was already taken). The company estimates it will receive about $12 million, which will be used to retire debt and open several restaurants under the names Souplantation and Sweet Tomatoes.
Company officials declined to be interviewed, citing securities regulations mandating a "quiet period" in the days surrounding a public offering, during which a company must not perform unusual promotional activities.
Still, an examination of Garden Fresh's stock prospectus shows a company with an uneven earnings history that has settled down in the last several months. But the company is also planning an expensive debt buyback and a costly expansion that will affect earnings in the future.
What's more, the salad buffet restaurant idea that was so popular in the 1980s has become a bit droopy in the Whiny '90s.
"I can't really call it a healthy segment of the market," said Laurie Lively Smith, an analyst with the Seidler Cos., a Los Angeles brokerage firm. "But Souplantation has performed better than its competition."