Red Lobster’s new CEO breaks silence over the downfall of the endless shrimp

Red Lobster’s new 35-year-old CEO is opening up about the restaurant chain’s all-you-can-eat shrimp fiasco which helped cost the business millions after it became all too popular with customers.

Originally a $20 once-a-week promotional deal, the company made endless shrimp a permanent menu item, leading patrons to eat more shrimp than the restaurant could afford, staying at their tables for hours and lengthening table wait times.

The Florida-headquartered chain lost $11m in the process, filed for bankruptcy and closed at least 129 locations. The closures hit outlets in Florida, Illinois, Virginia, Minnesota, New York, Arizona, California, Colorado, Georgia, Indiana, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio and South Carolina.

Now Damola Adamolekun, the company’s new CEO, is shedding light on what led to the crisis and the decision to drop the promotion.

“There were certainly big mistakes made over the last few years,” Adamolekun said in an interview with CNN, adding the shrimp promotion was “a very expensive product to give away endlessly.”

“When you have endless shrimp and people are coming in, and sitting down at the table, and eating for hours as much shrimp as they possibly can, you stress out the kitchen, you stress out the servers, you stress out the hosts,” he continued. “People can’t get a table. It creates a lot of chaos and you saw a lot of that.”

Adamolekun, a Harvard Business School and Brown graduate who was born in Nigeria and raised in Zimbabwe, Illinois and Maryland, said he plans to make several changes to the restaurant’s operations.

“The menu has gotten too big. We’re going to reduce the menu, but in a very intelligent way,” he said, stating the company is done closing locations. “We intend to grow from here,” he said.

“There’s going to be investments in the product that will take time. Infrastructure investment takes time,” Adamolekun said. “Technology investment takes time. There’s 545 restaurants. So fixing every broken HVAC and every torn carpet and every chair that needs replacing will take time, but the impact should be felt right away.”

Before his current role, Adamolekun spent nearly five years as the CEO of PF Changs, where he is said to have generated $1bn in revenue. Way before that, he waited tables.

He says he doesn’t see his age as an impediment to getting the job done.

“I’ve been in positions of authority for a long time,” he said. “My 35 might be different than somebody else’s 35 but these are just numbers. It’s about your experience, who you are as a person, the quality of your character, your integrity, your intelligence, your communication ability. There’s a lot of things that are different person by person and age is just one of them.”

“You know when I took over for PF Changs, I was 30,” he quipped. “Now I feel old. I feel experienced.”

Adamolekun, the son of a neurologist and pharmacist, previously worked as a Goldman Sachs banker and got into the operations side of the restaurant business through his role as a managing partner with Paulson & Co, the hedge fund that purchased PF Changs in 2019.

In August he was appointed CEO of Red Lobster, which came out of chapter 11 bankruptcy the next month after being taken over by a new consortium, RL Investor Holdings, and having its bankruptcy plan approved by a court.

Earlier this year he told Fortune: “My life is my work. My work is my life,” adding: “I never really have been a person that separated work and life. It mixes.”

In June, amid Red Lobster’s financial meltdown, another would-be savior stepped up: former Public Enemy star Flavor Flav.

A fan of the restaurant, the rapper ordered the entire menu for his family at one of the chain’s restaurants.

The 65-year-old posed in front of a table filled with seafood, sides, appetizers, and its iconic Cheddar Bay Biscuits – traditional biscuits decked out with garlic, butter, and cheese.

“Ya boy said he wuz gonna do everything to help Red Lobster and save the Cheddar Bay Biscuits… ordered the whole menu,” he wrote over the photo, which showed him standing in front of the table holding a biscuit in his hand.

The chain was founded in Lakeland, Florida in 1968.