Skylark Co. said Friday one of its founders will come back to steer the firm in its ambitious growth strategy.

Kiwamu Yokokawa, 68, who serves as its top adviser, will be the next chairman and chief executive officer, pending shareholder approval expected at a general meeting on March 30.

The company, which operates 3,200 restaurants nationwide, including the Gusto, Bamiyan and Jonathan's chains, was started by Yokokawa and his three brothers in 1962. All of them left management in March 2003.

"I know my comeback after three years' retirement will not be welcome," Yokokawa said at a news conference. He said Skylark had too many restaurant chains for President Yasutaka Ito to handle alone.

Yokokawa said he will be in charge of mergers and acquisitions for the company, adding he knows the industry well because he served as the head of a restaurant industry group for years.

The company, which has 380 billion yen in annual sales, has a rather ambitious goal of hitting 1 trillion yen in fiscal 2009, developing new types of restaurants and buying out rivals. However, the firm is facing a sagging market.

The market for family-style restaurants has been posting negative year-on-year sales since 1997 on a same-restaurant basis, according to the Japan Food Service Association.