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It sounds like a shrimp-ly irresistible offer, but Red Lobster’s $20 endless shrimp deal was allegedly the main suspect in the chain’s bankruptcy filing earlier this year, the new CEO said in a recent interview.
“You stress out the kitchen. You stress out the servers. You stress out the host. People can’t get a table,” Damola Adamolekun told CNN in his first on-camera interview Friday. “It creates a lot of chaos operationally.”
Though the beloved seafood chain had offered the endless shrimp deal for limited times only since 2004, it became a permanent menu item in 2023. And just a few years prior, in 2020, Thai Union Group had become Red Lobster’s majority shareholder with 49% control.
Adamolekun explained how Red Lobster was on the decline for many years due to that partnership with seafood distributor Thai Union.
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“I have to believe [Thai Union] wanted to do as well as they could. The fundamental problem is they’re not restaurant operators. They’re vendors for shrimp,” Adamolekun said.
Red Lobster CEO Damola Adamolekun put the blame on the chain’s $20 endless shrimp deal forcing its Chapter 11 bankruptcy earlier this year. (Getty Images)
Once Thai Union gained majority control, the group had reportedly reorganized Red Lobster’s executive leadership as well, and the year-round endless shrimp promotion proved to be too much to handle.
The Los Angeles Times previously reported how some patrons took to social media to brag about how many shrimp they were able to scarf down, including one woman who said she ate 108 shrimp during a four-hour meal.
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As customers looked to gorge themselves on shrimp and opted to continue consuming Red Lobster’s discounted fare, the company took bigger losses on the promotion. On top of that, Adamolekun claimed the staff was overwhelmed.
Watching the $20-all-you-can-eat shrimp debacle from the outside, the CEO thought “that’s a very expensive product to give away endlessly.”
Red Lobster eventually filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in a Florida court in May, and RL Investor Holdings LLC acquired it as part of a court-approved plan.
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The 35-year-old CEO of Red Lobster was previously the head of P.F. Chang’s before joining the seafood chain in September. In his interview with CNN, Adamolekun did not rule out the possibility of bringing “endless shrimp” back to tables.
“I never want to say never, but certainly not the way that it was done… We won’t have it in a way that’s losing money in that fashion and isn’t managed,” he said.
FOX Business’ Eric Revell and Aislinn Murphy contributed to this report.