Ruby Tuesday working to avoid loan defaults [1]

Ruby Tuesday Inc.'s lenders have agreed to give the restaurant chain until next month to amend its loan agreements to avoid default, the company said Wednesday.

"With the completion of our remodeling initiative, our repositioning investments and expenditures, and the temporary suspension of new restaurant openings, our focus is firmly on sales and profits with all excess cash flow being used to reduce debt levels. This should allow us to strengthen our financial position over the coming quarters and then focus on our strategy of returning excess capital to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases," Beall added.

The company, which has 944 company-owned, domestic and international franchised restaurants, warned in January of a possible default on its debt obligations. At the time, Beall described to investment analysts the continuing industry slump and economic downturn, comparing it to a "perfect storm."

It's always sad when a good company goes public and has to focus on "repositioning investments and expenditures" and "reducing debt levels" using "excess cash flow" and "strengthening their financial position" and "returning excess capital to shareholders" instead of just making a good product, food in this case, and providing good service to their customers.