MiamiHerald.com:
The owners of Pollo Tropical plan to spin off the homegrown Miami-based chain and its other Hispanic brands this year as a separate publicly-held company.
Pollo Tropical has been part of Carrols Restaurant Group, which is Burger King’s largest franchisee. The plan announced this week calls for splitting Carrols into two separate, publicly traded companies through a tax-free spin-off to the stockholders of the Syracuse, N.Y.-based company. The Pollo Tropical and Taco Cabana chains, which had combined revenue of $439.1 million in 2010, will make up the new company. Carrols will continue to own and operate more than 300 Burger King restaurants.
“We believe that it will enable each company to better focus on its respective opportunities as well as to pursue its own distinct growth and business plans,†Alan Vituli, chairman and chief executive of Carrols said on a conference call. “We also believe that a separation offers a potential for improving shareholder value.â€
The move is not surprising given the dramatically different directions that each of the chains has been heading.