USA: Big Buck on its feet again

Two years of struggling to make ends meet under the shadow of Chapter 11 bankruptcy have ended for Big Buck Brewery & Steakhouse in rising profits and a new sense of purpose among its top-ranking employees, Gaylord Herald Times posted May 15.

Although the company, technically, was operating at a profit as early as the summer of 2005, bankruptcy court settlement wasn't finalized until March.

Big Buck filed for bankruptcy in 2004 needing to restructure $16 million in secured debt to the Wayne County Employees Retirement System. Grosse Pointe-based acquisition company BBAC LLC purchased the $12 million in principle debt for $6.5 million. A group of unsecured creditors was owed a total of $600,000 and was paid approximately $150,000.

“The company spent three-quarters of a million extra in legal fees due to the creditor issue in Auburn Hills,” said Joel Flowers, managing member at Iridium, a consulting firm based out of Grosse Pointe Farms which runs Big Buck's day-to-day operations at the executive level.

“We settled on the issues because we were beating each other over the head,” said Flowers, indicating a judge in the case ruled what was once considered to be a lease agreement was instead a debt-payment agreement, allowing the restaurant there to remain open. "The ... creditor retains his debt. We have to pay off his debt at a particular point in time. In the meantime, we're continuing to pay off his debt service payment."

According to Gaylord Big Buck General manager Todd Chwatun, local first-quarter earnings were up 2 percent over 2005; second-quarter earnings are up 12 percent.

"It's been about a year since we got back on our feet," said Chwatun, who oversees a staff of as many as 90 people at the 15,000-square-foot Gaylord facility on South Otsego Avenue. Auburn Hills Big Buck employs approximately 130 people and opened in 1997. Cleon Converse, general manager at the unaffected Grapevine, Texas restaurant, visited downstate to help that facility get back "on their feet." Former CEO Mark Provenzano has stepped down, onto an advisory board.

"The biggest thing out of this whole deal is that we've worked hard to get back to what worked so well in the beginning: meat and potatoes," said Chwatun, who managed Big Buck's Grand Rapids restaurant before it closed in 2003.

The product push, said Chwatun, is to "drive sales through quality" rather than through the diversification of the menu; become a more active part of the community; and to develop staff from within.

Current plans to upgrade the facility include proposed work to the deck - stripping, refinishing and the installation of a roof - as well as the construction of a putting green and a playground.

Chwatun is confident quality will drive the restaurant through Michigan's current economic troubles.

"The best thing we're trying to do is offer (customers) the best experience they can have," he said, adding, "If they don't like it, I'll give them their money back."

The Gaylord restaurant also may get back into bottling its signature beer for sale in-house, which it had suspended some time back. The company's current license structure would not allow off-site sales.

"All stores are achieving better than expected results," said Flowers, noting the chefs are required to go into competitors' restaurants and to offer help, an action he hopes others will reciprocate. "We're getting a lot of positive employees. A lot of assets and resources are starting to be poured into their companies."

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