Red Lobster Comes Full Circle in Central Florida

It has been a long journey for Red Lobster that started as a single restaurant and grew into a global brand that still operates in Japan, Mexico, Ecuador and Thailand. It is not easy to forget the struggles they are having here in the United States. But they may have found an answer to keep those Cheddar Bay Biscuits on the table!

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Red Lobster has a storied history and now uncertain future as the restaurant industry is on shaky grounds as a whole and Red Lobster themselves are working through chapter 11 which they filed in Orlando. Red Lobster, which is still an Orlando, Fla.-based chain of seafood restaurants filed back on May 19 in the Bankruptcy Court for the Middle District of Florida.

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The first actual Red Lobster opened in 1968 along U.S. 92 with a view of Lake Parker in Lakeland, Florida. The restaurant started by Bill Darden, a Lakeland native, had a bonafide hit on his hands.

By 1970 General Mills bought the first five Red Lobster restaurants and created a nationwide chain, which eventually included more than 700 restaurants in the U.S. and Canada. In 1995, General Mills spun off the chain, creating Darden Restaurants, a now publicly traded company. Darden Restaurants operates other chain restaurants, such as Olive Garden, Longhorn Steakhouse, Bahama Breeze, the Capital Grille, Seasons 52, Chuy's and the Yard House.

In 2014 Darden announced the completion of the sale of Red Lobster to Golden Gate Capital. Golden Gate later sold to Thai Union in 2020. Thai Union as a seafood supplier announced the endless shrimp promo which is widely viewed for the bankrupcy and in January 2024 that it planned to sell off its remaining stake in the chain, according to Nation's Restaurant News.

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Red Lobster Management LLC on July 22 2024 filed its “designation of successful bidder” paperwork with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Middle District of Florida in Orlando. The seafood chain’s new owner will be RL Purchaser LLC, a bidder made up of Red Lobster’s lenders, which reportedly proposed a $376 million bid.

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If the restaurant company’s July 19 reorganization plan holds firm, the transaction will involve an equity transfer where the buyer receives equity in the reorganized company, instead of buying the company’s assets outright.

Photo byRodrigo Rodrigues | WOLF Λ R TonUnsplash

So it appears after a long winding history Red Lobster may once again start expanding and captivating diners everywhere, but for now everything is sitting in paperwork somewhere in Orlando.