Who owns el chico

Franchising was discontinued in , ending as an entirely unsuccessful venture. As lucrative as the s were for El Chico, the s would be equally as disastrous. El Chico entered the s as a pioneer in its industry niche, having tapped a passion for Tex-Mex food strong enough to support a chain of restaurants. The company's role as elder statesman in its industry, however, began to work against it during the s.

The Cuellar family had been involved in the restaurant business for nearly four decades. Over the years they maintained a tight grip of control over their enterprise and admitted few non-family members into the company's executive ranks. Few changes were made in the operation of the chain as a result, and the restaurants began to show their age, causing profits and sales to wilt as the El Chico concept grew stale.

The affect of the anemic financial performance was sufficient to halt unit expansion entirely by the end of the decade, but before the company completely bottomed out it was acquired by a much larger suitor, thereby ending the lengthy ownership of the Cuellar family. In , Campbell Taggart, Inc. A billion-dollar-in-sales baked goods manufacturer, Campbell Taggart had no prior experience in the restaurant business, but its success as a baked goods manufacturer had necessitated the move into a new business area.

The company had reached its enormous size by swallowing up competing baked goods companies, eventually gaining such dominance in its markets that the federal government began to take notice. Campbell Taggart held considerable sway, reaching 98 percent of all American households with its baked goods and exerting enough dominance that the Federal Trade Commission had prohibited the company from completing any more baking acquisitions in the future.

Consequently, the company was on the prowl for acquisitions in other business areas, and El Chico was selected. Campbell Taggart executives were not drawn to El Chico because of its mainstay restaurant chain. Instead, the company was primarily after the frozen and canned Mexican food business that was part of El Chico. El Chico's frozen and canned food business, which accounted for one-third of the company's revenue volume, was performing well, unlike the company's restaurants, and represented a complementary addition to Campbell Taggart's pervasive presence in grocery stores and supermarkets.

Campbell Taggart's plans for El Chico's canned and frozen food business, did not keep it from fostering interest in the El Chico restaurants. Ambitious plans were developed, plans that in five years would transform El Chico restaurants from a regional chain into a national chain, but the plans proved to be too ambitious and the already floundering restaurant business deteriorated further.

Campbell Taggart had no experience in the restaurant business before the company acquired El Chico, and after the acquisition, it made no attempt to hire anyone with the requisite expertise. Consequently, the combination of aggressive expansion and unqualified management made for a bad mix. In a month span, 20 new El Chico restaurants were opened--the greatest expansion spree in El Chico's history--but the new units performed poorly. In their zeal to establish new restaurants, Campbell Taggart executives did not pay proper attention to site selection and situated new restaurants too far away from the chain's central commissary in Dallas, which made supplying the new units a costly endeavor.

Further, the chain's standards loosened and customer satisfaction dropped, leading to the inevitable result of declining sales and profits. Already reeling before being acquired by Campbell Taggart, the El Chico chain was in serious trouble after three years of imprudent management.

By , the restaurant division was a bothersome drain on profits and desperately in need of sweeping changes. The inexperience of Campbell Taggart management caused its most decisive blow after El Chico's financial condition turned grave. Struggling to revive profits, Campbell Taggart executives attempted to squeeze greater profits out of the chain by cutting costs, which lowered the quality of food and service throughout the chain. In reference to this period in Campbell Taggart's ownership, a Cuellar family member later remarked to Restaurant Business, "Campbell Taggart was a fine company with good intentions, but as a manufacturing giant the company's focus was on cost control and management efficiencies, which unfortunately isn't compatible with operating a chain of restaurants.

Rivera's mood was decidedly upbeat as he assumed control and assessed the condition of the year old restaurant chain. The company had a long-standing reputation of being a good value, and I knew if we could just get operations back up to speed the rest would take care of itself.

Manager training was stressed, employee uniforms were changed, and the menus, signage, and the El Chico logo were redesigned. Gradually, the restaurant chain began to show small signs of recovery under Rivera's stewardship, but before the full effect of his changes could be realized, developments beyond Rivera's control called a halt to the progress. In November two years to the month after Rivera's arrival--Campbell Taggart agreed to be acquired by brewing giant Anheuser-Busch, a merger that marked the end of El Chico's ownership by Campbell Taggart.

The frozen and canned food business and the commissary in Dallas could still remain under Campbell Taggart's control, but the restaurants had to go. Additional locations the company is considering are the Wolfchase Galleria area, along Poplar near the I loop and Downtown Memphis.

Director of franchising Adam Mandel says Consolidated Restaurants is open to additional company-owned restaurants here, as well as franchise locations, if they can find the right people. The company looks for franchisees who want to own a full-service restaurant, have strong leadership skills and experience in the service industry. The typical El Chico is 5, square feet, seats about , and has employees. Cantina Laredos average 6, square feet, seat about and have about 60 employees.

There are currently 81 El Chico restaurants in 11 states, including 57 company-owned and 24 franchise locations. The concept dates back to , when Adelaida 'Mama' Cuellar sold homemade tamales at a county fair near Dallas. They proved so popular that she and her children opened the first El Chico restaurant in Dallas in They hired their friend Jose Valdez Caballero to manage the restaurant; he had grown up in his family's restaurant in Temple, Texas. El Charro became profitable, and the family began to expand its operations into Houston and Fort Worth.

The restaurant chain became El Chico, and most of the family moved to Dallas to work in the business. The Cuellar brothers diversified their business into frozen and canned foods, franchising, and numerous other enterprises that became the El Chico Corporation. Jose Caballero continued to work for the company as an executive until his retirement.

He is credited with the development of popular recipes and with the invention of the hard shell taco. Adelina Cuellar lived to the age of 98 and saw her tamale stand grow into a Tex-Mex empire. Today, there are one hundred El Chico restaurants in the United States and world-wide. Immediate Source of Acquisition. Cuellar, and Carmen Summers in and Processing Information.

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