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The comings and goings of Peter Oakes and Robert Brooks.
July 20, 2006

David Farkas Senior Editor, Chain Leader Read Bio

Word is that restaurant analyst Peter Oakes has left Piper Jaffray, where he had worked since fall 2003. Yesterday Oakes denied resigning, saying he had merely left for a two-week vacation.

Oakes spent a decade at Merrill Lynch before moving to the Minneapolis-based securities firm. He replaced another veteran, Allan Hickok, who’s now a financial adviser. While at Merrill Lynch, the perceptive analyst was named to Institutional Investors All-American Research team for 11 consecutive years.

In Oakes’ most recent Company Note (July 17), he admonished CBRL Group--the holding company for Cracker Barrel Old Country Store and Logan’s Roadhouse--for its preoccupation with operations while losing market share to category rivals.

“We fail to see how CBRL’s operational efforts, as well intentioned as they are, enhance the appeal [of the restaurants],” he writes.

On the other hand, this departure really took place. Hooters Chairman Robert Brooks died Sunday in his home. Brooks, who was 69 and a colorful entrepreneur, appeared on the cover of Chain Leader a few years ago. He had only recently ended a long court battle with the Hooters’ Florida founders and franchise owners, who had sued him for noncompliance.

Brooks told me lawyers on both sides were astonished that after court sessions ended, he and the Florida guys went out for dinner together. On that same visit, an admiring Brooks drove me past Chick-fil-A headquarters in Atlanta, a gorgeous building in a wooded area. His own headquarters, not far away, was a rather plain affair--part manufacturing plant.

Brooks, who majored in dairy science at Clemson, made his first fortune packaging salad dressing for the airline industry.

Posted by David Farkas on July 20, 2006 | Comments (0)