The Ryan’s buffet restaurant in Statesboro never opened for business Sunday and remained closed Monday, but there were contradictory signs as to why. After being purchased by another company in August, the chain that owns Ryan’s closed more than 70 restaurants last month, but the location on Highway 80 East in Statesboro initially wasn’t one of them.

Signs handwritten on notebook paper on the customer entrance and nearby exit stated, “Closed for Audit.” But someone had added to the sign on the locked entrance door, “Closed for Good” and “Over 50 people without a job,” also in black marker.

The Ryan’s website gave media contact numbers for Ink Link Marketing, a Miami Lakes, Florida-based firm that handles marketing and public relations for the restaurant, food service and hospitality industries. On hearing that the call was from the Statesboro newspaper and had to do with Ryan’s, Jane Vilaro, who answered the phone, said the company had not yet issued a statement.

“We are aware of it. We just don’t have anything specific to say at the moment,” she said.

She asked for contact information for a potential statement, but none was received by press time.

Back in the first week of February, a batch of other Ryan’s restaurants closed, in cities as least as widespread as Columbus, Ga., and Springfield, Mo., as shown on news media websites from the restaurants’ hometowns.

At that time, Peter Donbavand, vice president of Ovation Brands, which owns Ryan’s and five other buffet and casual-dining restaurant brands, issued a statement. Ovation Brands, based in Greer, S.C., was acquired by Food Management Partners, or FMP, based in San Antonio, Texas, in August.

“Since that time, we have continued to execute former management’s operating plan to stabilize and enhance the performance of the company,” Donbavand said in the February statement. “However, based on ongoing assessments of individual restaurants, it is necessary to shutter locations for the continued viability of the brands and our employees.”

He announced that 74 underperforming Old Country Buffet, Hometown Buffet, Ryan’s, Fire Mountain and Country Buffet restaurants throughout the United States would permanently close on Feb. 4.

“While we cannot predict future market conditions, the plan is to continue operating the remaining Ovation Brands’ restaurants as they are financially viable,” the statement continued. “Although the overall number of employees affected by closures is large, employees of closed restaurants will be given the opportunity to apply for positions at operating stores, and we expect many to take advantage of that opportunity.”

But that was a statement related to the early February closings. No statement about the Statesboro location had been obtained as of Monday afternoon.

In reporting Food Management Partners’ purchase of Ovation Brands Aug. 20, Nation’s Restaurant News, at www.nrn.com, quoted FMP as saying the acquisition would boost its holdings to 500 restaurants and more than $1 billion in annual sales. However, in a Feb. 5 article reporting the 74 closings, Nation’s Restaurant News stated that Ovation Brands, previously known as Buffets Inc., once had more than 675 locations but had been shrinking since a 2008 bankruptcy filing.

Ovation Brands also owns the California casual dining chain Tahoe Joe’s Famous Steakhouse, but it was not mentioned in the February statement.

Herald reporter Al Hackle may be reached at (912) 489-9458.