March 20, 2025
Purple Lobster CEO Damola Adamolekun is working exhausting to carry diners again to the restaurant.
Purple Lobster’s CEO is working exhausting to fight the sharp decline in informal eating following the COVID-19 pandemic and the ever-present menace of rising inflation.
At 36, Damola Adamolekun made historical past final September because the youngest CEO in Purple Lobster’s almost 60-year historical past. The Nigerian-born Ivy League graduate is now targeted on shaping the restaurant chain’s future, striving to reignite diners’ enthusiasm for consuming out.
“Lots of people, their early experiences with seafood have been at a Purple Lobster,” Adamolekun advised CBS Information.
“What folks, particularly younger folks, want along with nice meals is a good ambiance,” Adamolekun defined. “The place you possibly can are available feels good; it seems to be good. So in the event you don’t reside as much as what they anticipate, they received’t come again. They’ll go some place else, or they’ll eat at dwelling.”
Adamolekun took on the position throughout a tough patch for Purple Lobster. The corporate had already closed a number of dozen places and filed for chapter–alongside closings at TGI Friday’s, Buca di Beppo, and several other different restaurant manufacturers in 2024. With 544 places remaining within the U.S. and Canada, Adamolekun is now tackling the chain’s greatest challenges in an effort to revitalize one of many nation’s oldest informal eating manufacturers.
“You realize, disaster, it forces you to maneuver shortly, make selections, and you’ll’t stew too lengthy on like, am I prepared or am I not,” Adamolekun mentioned. “…I believe there’s all the time a solution to make one thing work. You simply want to search out the answer.”
Adjustments embrace eliminating Purple Lobster’s iconic Limitless Shrimp deal, streamlining the menu, and new choices.
“It’s an costly product,” Adamolekun mentioned of the Limitless Shrimp deal. “The best way they have been doing it was unmanaged.”
With inflation making many People hesitant to dine out and eating places dealing with rising meals prices, Adamolekun acknowledges that a few of these bills are being handed on to Purple Lobster’s prospects.
“Your complete price construction is gonna transfer up considerably, and costs within the nation will go up considerably, however I don’t wish to be greater than general inflation,” Adamolekun mentioned.
Adamolekun’s adjustments are making an influence. Purple Lobster is now not in chapter. A current business survey from the Nationwide Restaurant Affiliation revealed that about eight in 10 restaurant operators anticipate gross sales in 2025 to match or exceed final 12 months’s figures.
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