Three months after flying to Chicago to revive his company’s stuttering US expansion, Guzman y Gomez co-founder and co-CEO Steven Marks has called time on the project.
The Mexican fast-food chain will shut all eight of its Chicago restaurants with immediate effect, cancel commitments on two further sites, lay off 280 staff and draw a line under its proof of concept in the US market.
The move was praised by analysts, who had grown audibly impatient with the rollout, and welcomed by shareholders, who sent the share price up 9.6% on Friday.
“We view the exit as a positive,” said RBC Capital Markets analyst Michael Toner in a note to clients, a day after his upgrade on the stock premised on the strength of its Australian business helped drive a 13% rally.
