Red Lobster Turnaround in Question as It Burns Through Cash

On one of his first days as chief executive officer of Red Lobster, Damola Adamolekun made a bold prediction. The restaurant chain had just emerged from bankruptcy and was bleeding customers and cash. Uncertainty awaited its roughly 30,000 employees, many of whom had gathered for a town hall in late summer 2024 to meet Adamolekun, their sixth CEO in three years. “We’re going to execute the greatest comeback in the history of the restaurant industry,” he told the crowd.

Adamolekun was an unlikely pick to turn around this faded national icon. He was a 35-year-old Nigerian-born MBA who’d worked mostly ...