Costa Mesa-based restaurant operator King’s Seafood Co. has big plans as it navigates the worst industry downturn in recent memory.
The company, which generates more than $80 million in yearly revenue, owns and runs some 17 restaurants under the names King’s Fish House, Lou & Mickey’s, i. Cugini, Ocean Avenue Seafood, 555 East American Steakhouse and Water Grill.
King’s Seafood has 1,500 workers, including about 150 in Orange County.
The company competes with a handful of seafood restaurant operators including McCormick & Schmick’s Seafood Restaurants Inc., Darden Restaurants Inc.’s Red Lobster and various sushi places.
The company is feeling fallout from the industry downturn, Chief Executive Sam King said.
“These economic times make you sit and go, ‘Wow, what just happened? Where are we going?'” he said. “If sales keep decreasing, you have to do whatever you can to stay ahead.”
King’s has high hopes that a recently opened seafood processing plant and warehouse in Santa Ana will help it run more efficiently.
The 14,000-square-foot plant allows King’s to buy fish and shellfish directly from harvesters without going through distributors.
For seafood,which is more expensive than beef or chicken,the savings are sizable, according to King.
The plant, which opened in December, has refrigerators, a freezer, an oyster room and a vat of cold seawater that pumps into tanks of live crabs and lobsters.
Fish are filleted and cut into pieces and then packaged in labeled containers that are sent to the company’s restaurants via its two refrigerated trucks.
Casual Dining
This year, King’s plans to start a casual, less expensive version of its traditional fish house restaurant.
The restaurants are set to offer seafood similar to what is served at the company’s King’s Fish House restaurants but at lower prices.
A typical check at King’s Seafood casual eateries is expected to be $11 to $16, King said, versus $20 and up at the company’s other restaurants.
King is hoping the casual restaurants will draw lunchtime crowds and diners looking for quick, light food.
The first is planned for OC later this year, King said. The casual eateries stand to compete in a fragmented market that includes Pei Wei Asian Diner, part of Scottsdale-based P.F. Chang’s China Bistro Inc., Santa Ana-based Wahoo’s Fish Taco and Fullerton’s California Fish Grill Inc.
King grew up working at his family’s restaurant before starting his own business with cousin Jeff King in 1983.
Their fathers, Lou and Mickey King, started the King’s Restaurant chain in 1945.
The cousins grew up cleaning tables and washing dishes.
The Kings owned and ran their chain for almost 40 years before selling it to Tiny Naylor’s Inc. in 1982.
Fresh Start
Jeff and Sam King decided to get into the restaurant business after the sale.
Their first restaurant, the upscale 555 East American Steakhouse, is in downtown Long Beach.
They gradually opened more restaurants including the high-end Ocean Avenue Seafood in Santa Monica and Water Grill in Los Angeles.
The cousins opened King’s Fish House in the 1990s.
It’s now their bread and butter.
The company, which is backed by investors, has grown conservatively.
That is helping the chain weather the slowdown better than some, according to King.
“We’re lucky we’re the size we are now,” he said. “How big can you be and really keep the soul of the company intact? That’s a question that I ponder a lot.”
Tough economy aside, there are other challenges, King said.
The cost to build restaurants has gone up significantly through the years, he said. High labor and food costs also are factors.
Demand for healthier food has helped drive seafood restaurants. But it also has hurt them, King said, by pushing up the cost of fish and causing overfishing.
King said he’s a big supporter of raising fish in aqua farms.
“If we didn’t have farms, people would be paying double for fish,” he said.
King said he isn’t thinking about retiring or selling anytime soon.
His goal for now: “survival,” he said.
