DALLAS, Sept. 14, 2006 (PRIMEZONE) -- Romacorp, Inc. announced that it has signed a major new international franchise deal for the development of Tony Roma's restaurants throughout the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Food and Entertainment Co., LTD, will develop a minimum of six new Tony Roma's restaurants throughout Saudi Arabia. The first Tony Roma's will open on Olaya Road in early 2007. Several additional sites have been identified in Riyadh, Jeddah and Al Khobar throughout Saudi Arabia with the second unit scheduled to open later in 2007. International Trading Franchises, LLC (an Al-Naboodah Group company) based in Dubai, is the master franchisor for the region and will also support the new development.
The new franchise group also operates a number of other dining concepts including over 100 Cinnabon units, The Pizza Company, Carvel and Seattle's Best Coffee. The parent company of Food and Entertainment is the Al Hokair group who are one of the top 10 real estate, retail and mall developers throughout Saudi Arabia. Food and Entertainment will develop the new Tony Roma's full service concept prototype as well as potential new Tony Roma's Express units throughout the region.
"We are extremely pleased to sign such a high quality franchise partner as Food and Entertainment to develop new Tony Roma's in Saudi Arabia," said Marc Buehler, COO of Romacorp. "Our initial success in the Middle East with master developer, ITF, has been outstanding and we anticipate that F&E's new Tony Roma's will definitely strengthen our market share in the region. The groups successful operation of other food concepts will give them a strong advantage in their Tony Roma's development in Saudi Arabia."
"Tony Roma's is one of the leading casual theme concepts throughout the world, and the addition of Saudi Arabia marks our presence in 32 countries with total development commitments in over 43 countries worldwide," said Ken Myres, Vice President of Franchise Development. "We had extremely high franchise interest in Saudi Arabia and are confident that Food and Entertainment will be an outstanding franchise partner."
Talal Azhari, General Manager of Food and Entertainment said, "We are very honored and excited to be awarded the Tony Roma's development rights in Saudi Arabia. Our group has been very successful in the country and we are confident that we will build high quality Tony Roma's with great food and service that our guests will enjoy throughout Saudi Arabia."
Romacorp, Inc., is the operator of Tony Roma's restaurants, the world's largest casual dining concept specializing in ribs. Romacorp, Inc. currently operates 22 restaurants and through its subsidiary companies, franchises 200 restaurants in 26 states and 32 foreign countries and territories. The first Tony Roma's restaurant opened 34 years ago in North Miami, Florida, and today the concept includes restaurant operations that span 6 continents.