Così, Inc. Receives Nasdaq Notice of Minimum Shareholder Equity Non-Compliance
27 August 2013 - 5:00AM
CONTACT:
William E. Koziel
Chief Financial Officer
(847) 597-8803
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Così, Inc. Receives Nasdaq Notice of Minimum Shareholder Equity
Non-Compliance
DEERFIELD, Ill., August 26, 2013
-- Così, Inc. (NASDAQ: COSI), the fast-casual restaurant company,
today announced that it had received notice from the Listing
Qualifications Department of the Nasdaq Stock Market indicating
that the Company no longer meets the required minimum of
$10,000,000 in stockholders' equity needed for continued listing
under Listing Rule 5450(b)(1)(A) based on its Form 10-Q filing for
the period ending July 1, 2013. The notification letter
states that the Company has until October 4, 2013 to submit a plan
to regain compliance. If a plan is submitted and accepted,
the Company can be afforded up to 180 calendar days, or until
February 16, 2014, to regain compliance. If a plan is
submitted and not accepted, the Company may appeal to a Nasdaq
Listing Qualifications Panel.
Alternatively, the Company may
consider applying for a transfer to The Nasdaq Capital Market
provided it satisfies the requirements for continued listing on
that market. To avail itself of this alternative, the Company
would need to submit an application to transfer its securities to
The Nasdaq Capital Market by no later than October 4, 2013.
The Company will consider factors
such as shareholder liquidity and long-term growth in shareholder
value, among others, in its response to the notice.
The notification letter has no
effect at this time on the listing of the Company's common stock on
The Nasdaq Global Market. Cosi's common stock will continue to
trade on The Nasdaq Global Market under the symbol "COSI".
About Così,
Inc.
Così®
(http://www.getcosi.com) is a national fast casual restaurant chain
that has developed featured foods built around a secret,
generations-old recipe for crackly crust flatbread. This artisan
bread is freshly baked in front of customers throughout the day in
open-flame stone-hearth ovens prominently located in each of the
restaurants. Così's warm and urbane atmosphere is geared towards
its sophisticated, upscale, urban and suburban guests. There are
currently 72 Company-owned and 50 franchise restaurants operating
in sixteen states, the District of Columbia, Costa Rica and the
United Arab Emirates. The Così® vision is to
become America's favorite fast casual restaurant by providing
customers authentic, innovative, savory hand-crafted food while
remaining an affordable luxury.
The Così® menu features
Così® sandwiches,
freshly-tossed salads, breakfast wraps, melts, soups,
Così®
Squagels®, flatbread
pizzas, S'mores, snacks and other desserts, and a wide range of
coffee and coffee-based drinks and other specialty beverages.
Così® restaurants
are designed to be welcoming and comfortable with an eclectic
environment. Così's sights, sounds, and spaces create a tasteful,
relaxed ambience that provides a fresh and new dining
experience.
"Così," "(Sun & Moon Design)"
and related marks are registered trademarks of Così, Inc. in the
U.S.A. and certain other countries. Copyright © 2013 Così, Inc. All
rights reserved.
"SAFE HARBOR" STATEMENT UNDER THE
PRIVATE SECURITIES LITIGATION REFORM ACT OF 1995. This press
release contains statements that constitute forward- looking
statements under the federal securities laws. Forward-looking
statements are statements about future events and expectations and
not statements of historical fact. The words "believe," "may,"
"will," "should," "anticipate," "estimate," "expect," "intend,"
"objective," "seek," "plan," "strive," or similar words, or
negatives of these words, identify forward- looking statements. We
qualify any forward-looking statements entirely by these cautionary
factors. Forward-looking statements are based on management's
beliefs, assumptions and expectations of our future economic
performance, taking into account the information currently
available to management. Forward-looking statements involve risks
and uncertainties that may cause our actual results, performance or
financial condition to differ materially from the expectations of
future results, performance or financial condition we express or
imply in any forward-looking statements. Factors that could
contribute to these differences include, but are not limited to:
the cost of our principal food products and supply and delivery
shortages and interruptions; labor shortages or increased labor
costs; changes in demographic trends and consumer tastes and
preferences, including changes resulting from concerns over
nutritional or safety aspects of beef, poultry, produce, or other
foods or the effects of food-borne illnesses, such as E. coli, "mad
cow disease" and avian influenza or "bird flu"; competition in our
markets, both in our business and in locating suitable restaurant
sites; our operation and execution in new and existing markets;
expansion into new markets including foreign markets; our ability
to attract and retain qualified franchisees and our franchisees'
ability to open restaurants on a timely basis; our ability to
locate suitable restaurant sites in new and existing markets and
negotiate acceptable lease terms; the rate of our internal growth
and our ability to generate increased revenue from our existing
restaurants; our ability to generate positive cash flow from
existing and new restaurants; fluctuations in our quarterly results
due to seasonality; increased government regulation and our ability
to secure required government approvals and permits; our ability to
create customer awareness of our restaurants in new markets; the
reliability of our customer and market studies; cost effective and
timely planning, design and build out of restaurants; our ability
to recruit, train and retain qualified corporate and restaurant
personnel and management; market saturation due to new restaurant
openings; inadequate protection of our intellectual property; our
ability to obtain additional capital and financing; adverse weather
conditions which impact customer traffic at our restaurants; and
adverse economic conditions. Further information regarding factors
that could affect our results and the statements made herein are
included in our filings with the Securities and Exchange
Commission.
Additional information is available
on Così's website at
http://www.getcosi.com in the investor relations section.
This
announcement is distributed by Thomson Reuters on behalf of Thomson
Reuters clients.
The owner of this announcement warrants that:
(i) the releases contained herein are protected by copyright and
other applicable laws; and
(ii) they are solely responsible for the content, accuracy and
originality of the
information contained therein.
Source: Così, Inc via Thomson Reuters ONE
HUG#1724914