A popular Mexican-themed fast food chain has become the latest Australian company whose dreams of cracking the vast American market have ended in failure.
Guzman y Gomez is closing eight restaurants in the Chicago suburbs, two years after it raised $335.1 million in a highly touted stock exchange float to fund its global expansion plans.
GYG co-founder and co-chief executive Steven Marks, who just spent three months in the US, came to realise the move into the highly competitive market - where Taco Bell and Chipotle rule - wasn't working out.
"Decisions like today are never easy, but they are the decisions that build generational companies," Mr Marks told an online briefing on Friday.
The company's US food and guest experiences were superior to Chipotle and second to none, Mr Marks claimed, but it had also made mistakes.
