Chad WalldorfChad Walldorf says the Sticky Fingers restaurant chain had been losing money for most of this decade and the business started by the former Chattanoogan and two friends was faltering.
Walldorf, who with founders Jeff Goldstein and Todd Eischeid sold off most of his interest in the company in 2006, decided about a year ago to come back in as an investor and what he calls "chief support officer."
The result has been a return to Sticky Fingers Ribhouse's roots and culture, including everything from its menu to music - and a rebound to profitability, he said.
"We need to make Sticky Fingers great again and get our mojo back," Walldorf said in an interview Wednesday.
Tyler Lane, the operating partner at the Sticky Fingers Hamiton Place location, said culture is a key word he uses at his restaurant.
"We're getting back to where we used to be," he said. "We're making people happy."
The ribs and barbecue business, which has two eateries in Chattanooga, is marking 25 years since the Baylor School graduates decided after college to open a restaurant outside Charleston, S.C. Over the first decade and a half, Sticky Fingers grew to 15 restaurants in five Southeastern states.
Walldorf, 49, son of Chattanooga real estate broker Rudy Walldorf, said the business had grown to more than 1,000 employees.
"We had a good run," he said. "We didn't know what we were doing a lot of days, but we worked hard and tried to get better every day."
Over that period, the three entrepreneurs started families and decided it was time to sell. A private equity firm which had succeeded operating other companies was the buyer and, Walldorf said, the trio thought even brighter days were ahead.
But the new management team changed the company culture "pretty dramatically," Walldorf said. The menu was expanded to try "to be more things to all people," he said.
Then, the 2008 onset of the Great Recession didn't help matters, Walldorf said.
"A perfect storm caused trouble for the company," he said.
Over the years, the restaurant company went through several owners, Walldorf said, with even its lenders taking over at one point.
"Banks don't run restaurants very well," he quipped. "They're not known for serving great ribs and wings."
Walldorf recalled it was tough sitting on the sidelines and seeing something they had poured their hearts and souls into for 14 years sort of decaying. The number of restaurants fell from a high of 23 to 12, he said.
"There were a lot of people at the company we still cared about," Walldorf said. "They were very frustrated and wanted to get back the culture we had very customer-centric."
He met the company's primary new owner, Carsten Thoma, a technology businessman who had sold a venture to German software giant SAP.
"He shared my vision," Walldorf said, and the restaurant chain's co-founder had an opportunity to get back into the business and offer support.
Since then, he said they've streamlined the menu to focus on core items such as ribs, wings and barbecue, even offering higher quality cuts of meat.
However, the biggest change, Walldorf said, is cultural. While the chain originally played Memphis blues in its eateries, that had shifted to country or pop in some restaurants, he said.
The business has returned to the blues sound, even finding a company that streams about 250 songs which make up what he termed "a Sticky Fingers sound track."
Sales, Walldorf said, are increasing for the first time in years and expected to hit between $20 million and $25 million this year, up as much as 3 percent.
"We were losing a lot of money for a lot of years," he said. "We're not making a lot of money yet but we're not losing. We're moving in the right direction."
Lane said his Hamilton Place store was up $25,000 in sales last month alone.
The Chattanooga man who has been at Sticky Fingers since 2012 and the eatery's operating partner since January said the bouncing around between owners had hurt the restaurants. Now, the company is returning to its roots, he said.
"We're trying to get back to being more community-based compared to most corporations," Lane said. "It's fun, enthusiastic and you feel excited about coming to work."
Walldorf said there's no silver bullet to a turnaround situation.
"We're trending in the right direction," he said. "Customers are excited about the brand for the first time in a long time."
Walldorf said he'd like to see the chain stabilized over the next 12 to 18 months and then start growing in number again.
"One of the most exciting things we did was give opportunities to people who we worked with," he said. "For now, there are plenty of opportunities to continue improving on what we're doing and let people know the old Sticky Fingers is back."
The company's headquarters has even returned to Mount Pleasant, S.C., outside Charleston, across a parking lot from the original Sticky Fingers restaurant, Walldorf said.
Contact Mike Pare at mpare@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6318.