By JASON BOOTH
Staff Reporter
It has been a tumultuous 20 years for James A. Collins.
Between 1979 and 1990, the one-time hamburger flipper turned restaurant-chain czar watched his company Sizzler International Inc. (formerly Collins Foods International) become wildly successful. Then in just six years, the firm almost fell apart, eventually ending up in bankruptcy court in 1996. Today, Sizzler is a shadow of its former self.
Such a corporate tsunami would have rattled the nerves and confidence of most businessmen. But Collins says he likes the challenge.
“I’m back where I started and enjoying every minute of it,” said Collins, sitting in his office on Centinela Avenue in Culver City, in almost the same location where he opened his first hamburger joint in 1952.
Educated as an engineer, Collins takes a cool-headed approach to analyzing the near-disaster that befell Sizzler. In fact, he’s proud of how the bankruptcy was handled.
“Every creditor got paid with interest, every employee got paid and there was no dilution to shareholders, so everybody is whole,” he said.
His analytical way of dealing with Sizzler’s downfall is similar to the way he built the company in the first place.
By the late ’70s, Collins Foods was gaining momentum in its drive to turn Sizzler into one of the nation’s biggest and most popular restaurant chains. Collins also owned around 300 Kentucky Fried Chicken outlets across the United States and Australia.
Collins is the first to admit that he is more manager than entrepreneur. Sizzler International was primarily constructed out of businesses founded by other people. “I didn’t think up the hamburger business, I didn’t think up the chicken business,” he said. “But I like to think that when I see a good idea, I know enough to grab onto it.”
At its peak, the company had around $750 million in sales and 16,000 employees. But then came the ’90s.
A combination of changing demographics, increased competition and poor management decisions sent the now-publicly held company into a tailspin, culminating in the 1996 bankruptcy.
As part of the restructuring, Sizzler closed 130 of its company-owned restaurants in the United States. The bankruptcy also resulted in across-the-board layoffs.
Next month, Collins will be stepping down as chairman, a title he has held for 32 years. He will, however, be maintaining an office in the Sizzler headquarters building so he can keep an eye on the company, in which he remains a major shareholder. As he looks back over the last 20 years, with its great successes and failures, Collins considers himself a lucky man.
“I like to tell people that because I spent two years building Catholic churches when I was an engineer, I have always had the blessing of the good Lord,” he says.
