New owner of area Captain D’s plans renovations, more locations

A new Captain D’s franchisee has purchased the five area seafood restaurants.

Marlu Investment Group plans to remodel the restaurants in 2015. It also is looking at sites for new area restaurants and plans to open five more — one a year starting in 2015.

“We felt there was an opportunity in seafood, something that didn’t compete with what we already had and complements our other restaurants,” said Tony Lutfi, chief executive officer and president of Marlu. “We want to bring them up to today’s image so sales will improve, employees will be happier and customers will come in more often.”

Marlu Investment Group, Sacramento, Calif., owns 21 Jack in the Box restaurants, 47 Church’s Chicken operations, 50 Arby’s, 16 Little Caesars, and five Sizzler restaurants, but none in the Kansas City area.

It also has 36 Sears-branded stores, including a Sears Home Appliance Showroom in Overland Park, and Sears Outlet stores in Kansas City and Lenexa.

Captain’s D’s is based in Nashville, Tenn., and has 520 restaurants in 25 states, as well as in military bases around the world.

This story was originally published September 29, 2014 at 4:53 PM with the headline "New owner of area Captain D’s plans renovations, more locations."