Noodles & Co. narrows loss in 2017 compared with 2016

BROOMFIELD — Fast-casual restaurant chain Noodles & Co. on Wednesday reported a loss of $37.5 million for its fiscal year 2017 that ended Jan. 2, 2018, an improvement compared with a loss of $71.7 million in 2016.

The Broomfield-based company reported that revenue in 2017 decreased $31 million, or 6.4 percent, to $456.5 million, compared with $487.5 million in 2016. This decrease was due to the impact of closing 55 company-owned restaurants in the first quarter of 2017 and a decline in comparable company-owned restaurant sales, partially offset by additional restaurant openings since the beginning of 2016, the company said.

The company had 478 restaurants at the end of 2017 — 412 company-owned and 66 franchise restaurants.

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Dave Boennighausen, Noodles’ chief executive, said several steps were taken to improve the company’s fundamentals by “returning our focus to our core operations, rationalizing our portfolio base and solidifying our leadership team.”

In the fourth quarter, the company began to see improvement, resulting in improved comparable restaurant sales performance relative to prior quarters, he said. The company lost $487,000 in the fourth quarter compared with a loss of $45.4 million for the same quarter in 2016.

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