The parent company of Noah’s New York Bagels, a local institution for more than a decade, has filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
At the same time, it announced plans to open two new stores in the Bay Area — and close four others.
The bagel chain shut the four, leaving 43 others in the Bay Area, as a cost-cutting measure after filing for bankruptcy last week. The closed stores were in Mill Valley, Palo Alto, San Leandro and Santa Clara, resulting in a layoff of about 40 employees.
However, according to Anita-Marie Hill, spokesperson for the corporation, two new local Noah’s stores are due to open soon. One will be in the basement of San Francisco’s Hyatt Regency Hotel, and the other will be connected to the Marriott Hotel in San Jose.
“The Bay Area has always done incredibly well in terms of sales,” said Hill, who ranked figures in Northern California as among the best in the country.
The Colorado-based Einstein/Noah Bagel Corp., which owns 539 bagel outlets nationally, is facing $125 million in debt.
Hill said that the reduction in stores was the result of fiscal realities and wasn’t a harbinger of doom for the operation as a whole.
“We have to look at each individual store’s profitability,” said Hill. “If a store is just two blocks from the wrong location, it can really make or break a business.”
While noting the success of doughnut chains such as Krispy Kreme, Hill denied that shifting consumer tastes were responsible for any loss in revenues.
“People that like bagels are going to buy bagels — period,” said Hill. “And we have such as expansive lunch menu that we can satisfy the desire for any calorie count.”
Noah’s merged with the Einstein Corp. in 1996, after being solely owned by Noah Alper, an Orthodox Jew who opened his first shop in Berkeley in 1989. Alper, who lives in Berkeley, is no longer affiliated with the company.