An Enduring Family Business in a Competitive Industry – Columbia Restaurant Group



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INTRODUCTION

In August 2014, Richard Gonzmart (Gonzmart), President and Fourth Generation Family Member of the family-owned Columbia Restaurant Group (Columbia) in Tampa, Florida, announced the opening of a new restaurant – Ulele. The restaurant was named after the nearby ‘Ulele Spring’. The new restaurant served foods and spirits that had Native American and multicultural influences, including those of European explorers. It featured locally grown food and fish sourced from local waterways, apart from having an on-site craft brewery.

Gonzmart stated that Ulele had been created as a family legacy for future generations of the family. Ulele was constructed as part of a multi-million project undertaken by the Hernandez-Gonzmart family and the City of Tampa, through a public-private partnership. The project also sought to revamp certain key landmarks in the surrounding areas, namely, the ‘Water Works Park’ and ‘Ulele Spring’. Gonzmart expected the project to boost the prospects of the neighborhood. He added, “It was a well-to-do area, but it’s fallen on hard times.

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Columbia was a 110-year-old family business that had restaurants spread over six locations in Florida. It was also the world’s largest Spanish restaurant group, apart from having the oldest Spanish restaurant in the US. It trumped all odds by managing to survive for over 100 years in an industry marked by very high failure rates. Moreover, Columbia was among just 3% of family businesses that were being managed by the fourth and fifth generations.........

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