O'Naturals departs Portland … for now
Mainebiz file photo
Mac McCabe, co-founder of O’Naturals, says sales at the restaurant's Portland location have dropped 10% since last year
O'Naturals on Exchange Street is closing its doors at the end of the month, a victim of the dreary economy and a summer that started out with a soggy whimper. But the healthy fast-food chain will keep its Falmouth location open, as well as scattered franchises across the country, and won't rule out a return to Portland.
"We made the decision about three weeks ago because sales have been abysmal for a year, and you can just see it by counting the empty parking places on Exchange Street," says Mac McCabe, co-founder of O'Naturals. "The only way we could make it work is if we had a gangbuster summer."
Along with a rainy June that seems to have deterred tourists and a recession that diminished people's eating-out appetites, McCabe said the downtown Portland restaurant never managed to pull in evening diners.
McCabe said sales were down more than 10% this year over last. Some of the dozen part- and full-time workers in Portland will take positions at the busier Falmouth spot and others will be laid off.
O'Naturals was launched as the country's first natural fast-food restaurant in 2001 in Falmouth by a number of investors, including Gary Hirshberg, CEO of the New Hampshire-based yogurt company, Stonyfield Farm. The Portland location opened in 2002.
Nearby Exchange Street restaurants have also posted lower sales. Paul Gyawali said his Greek Corner restaurant is pulling in 10% less this summer than last, and restaurateur Harding Lee Smith said business is off by 8% to 10% at his downtown restaurants, which include The Grill Room and the newly opened The Corner Room.
"It's mostly due to the weather," Smith says, noting that 60 degrees and cloudy seems to be the ideal condition to bring in patrons. While rain keeps customers away, sunny days also tempt people to barbecue at home.
The size, too, of the Exchange Street O'Naturals - about 3,500 square feet and two floors - may have inhibited success. McCabe says he'd like to reopen O'Naturals in Portland, but that the next time around he will choose a space with a lower overhead. "We figured out food and labor costs, they're successful," he says. "We'd look at a smaller, tighter location."
McCabe says, too, that his market niche - organic, natural fast food served in a casual environment - might have suffered because it's relatively new and untested. Nationwide, though, people in general have cut down on eating out - while not decreasing their spending on organic food, according to the Organic Trade Association. "They are cutting other things rather than organic food," says the association's press secretary, Barbara Haumann. "They're choosing to eat at home more."
O'Naturals is, however, far from gone. The restaurant will expand its menu in Falmouth, McCabe says, and has partnered with Compass Group, a global food services company, to open more kiosks and restaurants at locations nationwide.
O'Naturals' last day at 83 Exchange St. will be July 25. Joe Malone, the landlord, says he's already in talks with possible tenants, and expects another restaurant to move in.
"There seems to be a lot of interest still in restaurants," Malone says.
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