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Once a beloved restaurant chain with more than 700 locations, Sizzler says it’s on the rebound. That’s thanks to a renewed focus on what made it popular to begin with while improving the guest experience. In an interview with QSR magazine, Sizzler’s Chief Growth Officer Robert Clark said that previous management aimed to transform the brand into something different. “And it just never worked,” Clark says. “Our current leadership (CEO Chris Perkins took over the role in 2019) is much more focused on ‘hey, let’s take the best of Sizzler and let’s make it even better.’” While that means keeping up with food quality and affordability, it also means remodeling locations to give them a new feel, without changing Sizzler’s core appeal. “We feel like we have a really great brand here,” Clark said. “And our results have been very solid. We constantly pop up in pop culture. I think what we’re trying to do with the remodel is really stay relevant and have facilities and assets that meet our reputation. “We understand that remodeling is probably the single biggest driver of guests in the restaurant. It’s the most important thing I think we could do aside from a lot of other operational things we’re doing as well.” The company was founded in 1958, years before competitors like Outback Steakhouse and Texas Roadhouse were launched. Clark said that on average, restaurants that have remodeled have seen sales increase by roughly 47 percent. One location saw sales double after completing the remodel. The company has also focused on lowering labor and food costs by cross training staff and improving operations to increase speed. “Everything we did was trying to dig into what made Sizzler so great in the first place. Why we have some restaurants that have stood the test of time through different rebirths; why people keep coming back,” said Sizzler VP of Marketing Sasha Shennikov. Even with the changes, it will take a lot of work to restore the steakhouse chain to its former glory. At its peak in the 1990s, Sizzler had more than 700 locations nationwide. That’s down to roughly 80 locations today, with almost all of them located in the western U.S. “It’s hard to turn the whole ship, but I think we’ve got a good plan, and we’ve got people in place who can get the results,” Clark said.
