Garden Fresh Restaurants, the owner of Souplantation and Sweet Tomatoes, on Friday named Donald Breen the company’s new CFO.
Breen joins the company from Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen, which was sold to Olive Garden owner Darden Restaurants last year. Breen had been Cheddear’s CFO for the past 10 years and helped the chain expand from $100 million to $600 million in system sales.
He had also worked with Baja Fresh, Brothers Gourmet Coffees, Jamba Juice and Adolph Coors Co.
He takes over finance operations for a 97-unit company that emerged from bankruptcy early last year with a new owner in Cerberus, which turned around and sold the company nine months later to a pair of private-equity groups.
Garden Fresh CEO John Haywood lauded Breen’s “proven ability to evolve critical financial functions and lead exceptional support teams,” and added that Breen “will make an immediate impact on our restaurant performance, guest experience and growth.”
Haywood was named CEO in September.
Breen will lead finance, accounting, IT, risk management, asset protection, facilities, property and legal support.
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