Brad Blum, a restaurant industry veteran, is calling for a new board of directors at fast-casual chain Cosi Inc., where he wants to be installed as chief executive.
Mr. Blum, who has acquired a roughly 7% stake in Cosi through his investment firm BLUM Growth Fund LLC, says he wants a shot at turning around Cosi, whose shares traded at $11.21 in March of 2006 and have fallen as low as 56 cents earlier this month.
In 4 p.m. trading Tuesday, Cosi’s shares were up 1.3% to 68 cents on the Nasdaq Stock Market.
“Cosi is in a serious crisis now. We need to have a results driven, engaged board of directors,” Mr. Blum said in an interview. “This is not a proxy fight. I simply want to highlight the facts of the current performance and have shareholders be aware of that. ”