Baja Fresh
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Baja Fresh is a restaurant chain of Fresh Mex restaurants founded in Newbury Park, California, United States in 1990 by Jim and Linda Magglos. Categorized as a "fast-casual" restaurant, the quality and preparation time of its food was between that of a fast-food restaurant and a more formal restaurant. It is headquartered in Cypress, California.
A feature of Baja Fresh restaurants is a self-serve salsa bar. Similar competitors include California Tortilla, Panchero's Mexican Grill, Chipotle Mexican Grill, Moe's Southwest Grill, Qdoba, Rubio's Fresh Mexican Grill, Tijuana Flats.
In 2002, Baja Fresh became a wholly owned subsidiary of Wendy's International with a purchase price of $275 million. Under Wendy's ownership the original Baja Fresh menu of freshly prepared-on-site ingredients was replaced with standard fast-food joint staples and sales at the chain predictably slid, and it quickly began to lose money. On November 28, 2006, Wendy's sold Baja Fresh to David Kim, a private investor consortium for $31 million.[1]
By July 2009, all Baja Fresh locations in central Ohio had closed their doors.
According to the Wendy's website, as of October 12, 2006: There were 299 units operating, including company-owned and franchised; Annual revenues were $172 million; Average Annual Sales per restaurant was $1.2 million; Systemwide Average Check was between $7.00 and $8.00.
Its current President & CEO is Daniel Hartzman.
