The Atlanta Constitution from Atlanta, Georgia • D3

Filename: D3-BUSINE-AJCD0612-AJCD created: Jun 11 2007 Username: SPEED10 AJCD0612 Tuesday, Jun 12, 2007 BUSINESS 3 AJCD 3 Cyan Magenta Yellow Black 3 Cyan Magenta Yellow Black AJCD File name: D3-BUSINE-AJCD0612-AJCD created: Jun 11 2007 Username: SPEED10 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution ajc.com 4 Tuesday, June 12, 2007 D3 DILBERT SCOTT ADAMS, The Business TOP STORIES FROM AROUND THE COUNTRY: UPDATED AT AJC.COM/BUSINESS BUSINESS EUROPEAN TRAVELER Tribune Source: ComScore Expedia ViaMichelin TUI Group Lastminute Priceline 18.5 million 13.5 million 12.5 million 9.8 million 8.9 million DAILY BIZFACT Finger joint beat the odds on sh turf By ALAN SAYRE Associated Press Kenner, La A business professor at Louisiana State University said the idea have a chance of competing against Cajun cuisine. The bankers whom Todd Graves asked to his dream restaurant responded with head shakes. So, the self-styled entrepreneur worked as much overtime as he could in a California and as a salmon in Alaska to raise a $30,000 grub stake for the Raising just off the Louisiana State University campus in 1996. Thus far, the naysayers have been wrong: Raising has grown to a 12-state, 60-restaurant chain 33 of them in Louisiana using a menu almost everyone said work in the land of blackened and hot sauce: chicken Did Graves expect the chain named after his yellow Labrador to expand so fast? he said after recently opening a new outlet in the New Orleans suburb of Kenner. thought it was a college-only Raising an industry giant.

According to Restaurants Institutions Magazine rankings for 2006, is at the head of the limited-service list with 30,776 restaurants. Popeyes, the fried chicken chain that originated in Louisiana, has 1,828 restaurants, according to the magazine. Chicken restaurant industry leader KFC has 13,731 locations. But size apparently bother Graves. For now, carefully planned growth is the strategy with an emphasis on quality food and speed, he said.

have to stand for said Graves, who describes himself as the founder, chairman, CEO, president, fry cook and cashier. other fast-food restaurants have turned into concession stands, turned into vending machines and turned into specials of the Baton Rouge-based Raising is not the chain with a menu centered on chicken Birmingham- based started in 1982, brags on its Web site of having more than 50 restaurants, with more to come, and with about the same fare. In fact, Graves said he became interested in the restaurant business while attending the University of Georgia and working at a in Athens. After graduating in 1994, Graves decided to come home to Baton Rouge and pursue his own chicken restaurant, though, at the time, he was thinking about only one restaurant catering to LSU students. He persuaded friend Craig Silvey, an LSU student at the time, to jump in with him as a partner.

They decided to test their idea by using business plan course at LSU. Their plan for Raising got a C-minus after the professor said a chicken restaurant would never succeed in food-crazy south Louisiana. The pair then toured Baton Rouge banks hoping to impress loan After they Graves retreated to the West Coast, working as a boilermaker, before joining his pal in Alaska for 20-hour days on salmon boats to raise startup money. The Raising rose from a dilapidated building near the LSU campus in August 1996, followed by another near the south campus entrance in 1998. Unlike the original student-driven location, the second attracted regular customers from businesses and residential neighborhoods.

Since then, expansion has been the rule. By the end of the year, six more Raising are expected to open, while 15 to 20 more are on tap for 2008, Graves said. Silvey sold his interest after the second restaurant opened, but later returned as the vice president. Graves gives him credit for much of the expansion. Besides the simple menu with a typical meal running $4 to $8 emphasizing fresh chicken, Raising encourages its work staff to have fun while doling out the chicken There are no neckties or white shirts: Raising people including Graves in the recent interview don casual golf-type shirts sporting the company emblem.

The restaurants also try to mimic the feel of a with ceiling fans, movie posters and other memorabilia. Bob Goldin, a restaurant industry analyst at Technomic a Chicago-based food consultancy, said limited menu concepts run against the general trend of the business, but does have potential pluses. advantage is focus and simplicity. a lot to be said about that in terms of operating, marketing and Goldin said. can master the But Goldin said also an obvious downside.

you have a party of four and one want chicken tenders, they have veto TASTE FOR SUCCESS The business: Restaurant chain specializing in fried chicken Founded: First restaurant opened in 1996 near the Baton Rouge campus of Louisiana State University. Ownership: Privately held. Controlled by founder Todd Graves. Annual revenue: Not disclosed. Locations: 60 in 12 states, including 33 restaurants in Louisiana.

Other locations are in Texas, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Virginia, Ohio, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Colorado, Nevada and Minnesota. Fourteen are franchised; the others are company-owned. Growth plans: Six locations expected to open in 2007, followed by 15 to 20 in 2008. BILL HABER Associated Press Todd Graves started the Raising chain in Louisiana, where some said it But it has thrived and expanded. Brazil, India insist U.S.

cut subsidies By BRADLEY S. KLAPPER Associated Press Geneva Brazil and India challenged the United States on Monday to offer cuts in the amount of subsidies paid out to American farmers or risk another setback in the World Trade long and agonizing round of global commerce talks. The administration of President Bush which has not budged on farm subsidies since an October 2005 offer to cap them at $22 billion annually needs to go as far as halving that if it wishes to salvage a new global trade deal by the end of the year, the countries said. U.S. has to Indian Trade Minister Kamal Nath told reporters after top from more than 20 developing countries met at the Geneva headquarters.

The talks known as the Doha round have struggled since their inception in capital largely because of wrangling between rich and poor countries over eliminating barriers to agricultural trade. Critics of the subsidies say they unfairly lower international prices, making it impossible for poorer nations to develop their economies by selling their farm goods abroad. Brazil and India, which co-lead the emerging economies bloc, meet next week with the United States and the European Union in Potsdam, Germany, for talks. In a statement Monday, developing countries said a number for U.S. farm subsidies, which they interpret to include levels as low as $10 billion, would a to real and effective and is the possible Brazil has proposed a limit of $12 billion, Foreign Minister Celso Amorim said.

Nath said many of the countries at the meeting wanted U.S. assurance that spending would not increase from an estimated level of $11 billion. Gretchen Hamel, a spokeswoman for the of the U.S. Trade Representative, declined to comment immediately. But some observers immediately rejected the cited by Brazil and India.

numbers are said David Salmonsen, senior director of congressional relations at the American Farm Bureau Federation. not really where discussions have been, and not really where we think the U.S. will he said.w The United States and the 27-nation EU say they will make no further concessions on agriculture as long as major emerging economies such as Brazil, China and India refuse to open their markets to manufactured products, which comprise the vast majority of goods traded internationally. The 150 members are seeking to clinch agreement on the framework of a deal by the end of July, so that enough time is set aside for the technical work needed to conclude a deal by December. Failure over the next seven weeks could set the whole process back until 2010.

Indian Trade Minister Kamal Nath says many nations want assurances that levels will not increase. Qwest CEO to be third top executive to leave By SANDY SHORE Associated Press Denver Richard Note baert, who pulled a troubled Qwest Communications from the brink of bankruptcy amid a multibillion-dollar accounting scandal, announced plans Monday to retire as chairman and chief executive Notebaert, 59, said he will leave the Denver-based telecommunications company after the board of directors selects a replacement, although no timetable has been established. He is the third top-ranking executive to announce plans to leave Qwest this year. time has come for me to spend more time with family and focus on other Notebaert said in a written statement. am extremely proud of our accomplishments during the past years and have full in the leadership at Notebaert was tapped to head Qwest Communications International the main telephone service provider in 14 mostly Western states, after ex-CEO Joe Nacchio resigned in June 2002 amid the scandal that forced the company to restate at least $2.2 billion in revenue.

In the past years, Note baert and his team toiled to turn the company around and drew intense national interest with a bitter bidding war for MCI Inc. that eventually was won by Verizon Communications Inc. Last year, Qwest posted its operating since acquiring the former Baby Bell US West Inc. in 2000. planned departure comes as Qwest is its way in the competitive of telephone, Internet and television service.

It resells both wireless and satellite television services to offer bundled packages to customers. One of its toughest com petitors is Comcast which covers a good portion of 14-state region. Notebaert helped cut the costs and increased revenue without forcing it into bankruptcy, Janco Partners telecommunications analyst Donna Jaegers said. did a good job, but this is not a good time to step she said. Qwest is at a very strategic juncture where they have to start getting better returns out of their out-of-region The board faces a task in a replacement, Jaegers said.

decision comes on the heels of the departures of two other high-ranking executives, and caught many off- guard, including the Communications Workers of America, largest union. Its next contract talks with Qwest are scheduled next year. Oren G. Shaffer, vice chairman and chief left April 1 and was replaced by John W. Richardson, then controller and senior vice president of Barry K.

Allen, executive vice president of operations, last week said he will retire June 29 and be replaced by Robert D. Tregemba, vice president of network operations and engineering. Frank P. Popoff, lead director on the Qwest board, said Notebaert had all expectations. He will leave the company well positioned for future growth and truly will be Richard Notebaert will remain as CEO and chairman at Qwest until a replacement is named by its board.

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