At Carl Marks Advisors, we help family-owned, private and public companies navigate through a number of economic cycles. The current crisis however, caused by the Covid-19 virus, is unlike anything we or the markets have seen before.
While every industry has faced challenges, the pandemic has had a devastating impact on restaurant businesses and restaurant franchise owners as non-essential businesses have been forced to close across the country and the vast majority of states have issued some sort of shelter-in-place order. The National Restaurant Association estimates that over a three-month period, industry sales will decline by $225 billion and job losses will be 5-7 million.
In this difficult environment, many restaurants have already made difficult adjustments to preserve some revenue, including delivery and take-out options with social distancing. Here are six things we are recommending to restaurant businesses and franchisees in the current environment: