Bob Evans Restaurants is an American national chain of restaurants currently owned by Golden Gate Capital and based in New Albany, Ohio. The restaurants were formerly operated by Bob Evans Farms, Inc., a food service, processing, and retail company also based in New Albany. Both companies are named after their founder, Bob Evans (1918-2007).
Video Bob Evans Restaurants
Overview
The Bob Evans chain has over 600 locations in 24 states, primarily in the Mid-Atlantic, Midwestern, and upper Southern states. All locations are corporately owned, not franchised.
The restaurants offer a theme of country living, and a close connection to farms. Breakfast is served at the restaurants all day long. Baked goods, snacks, greeting cards, and small gift items are also sold at some Bob Evans restaurants.
Prior to the restaurant division's sale in 2017, the company also offered pork products to the retail grocery market, as well as other prepared food products to the grocery and food service segments. These products remained with Bob Evans Farms after the sale of the restaurant division and are sold under the Bob Evans and Owens Country Sausage brand names.
Maps Bob Evans Restaurants
History
In 1946, the Bob Evans Restaurant chain started from a single truck stop diner near the Bob Evans Farm in Rio Grande, Ohio.
The restaurant chain started up after Bob Evans began processing and packaging his own sausage for his diner. Truck drivers and other patrons began telling him that his sausage was superior. He did not have the capacity to fill large orders. As a result, he contracted with his cousin Tim Evans of Evans Packing Co. to package Bob Evans Sausage products. Bob made his way across the Southern Ohio Hills seeking some of the best cuts of meat. He was very well known in the town of Gallipolis, Ohio, where at the local Meat Market & Grocery Store he and Earl Nance created sausage recipes. Evans tried to sell his sausage to area restaurants, but they turned him down, saying that customers wouldn't pay more for quality. Evans felt differently and opened his own restaurant on his farm in Rio Grande in 1962.
Another relative, Dan Evans, served as CEO until his retirement in 2000.
The company acquired Texas-based Owens Country Sausage in 1987. The company branded its otherwise identical restaurants in Texas as Owens Restaurants due to trademark issues. By January 2006, all Owens restaurants were closed.
The company operated a Mexican-themed restaurant called Cantina del Rio in the mid-1990s, a move which Bob Evans called "a disaster" in 2003.
The Evans family controlled daily operations of the company until 2000 when Dan Evans retired as CEO. After Dan's retirement, Stewart K. Owens (a former officer of the Owens Country Sausage company and later president of BOBE) assumed control of Bob Evans Farms Inc. as CEO. In 2001, he became Chairman of the Board. Company profits faltered under Owens' tenure. In August 2005, after corporate profits had dropped in eight of the previous nine quarters, Owens announced his resignation. After operating for several months under interim CEO Larry Corbin, the company hired Steven Davis, former president of Long John Silver's, as CEO in May 2006.
In July 2004, Bob Evans Farms purchased the California-based Mimi's Cafe restaurant chain (operating under SWH Corporation) for $182 million. Mimi's Cafe had 144 locations throughout the U.S. at the time. They featured casual dining and American food with a French emphasis and decorative elements. Bob Evans Farms sold Mimi's Cafe to the U.S. branch of Groupe Le Duff in 2013.
On August 17, 2009, Bob Evans opened a prototype restaurant in Xenia, Ohio. This restaurant has a more farm-like feel and resembles the Bob Evans farm.
CEO Steven Davis resigned in December 2014.
As of Q4 2015, the chain announced its intention to sell 145 properties to Mesirow Financial Holdings Inc. for a total price of $200 million. The net proceeds are expected to be approximately $165 million and the deal is expected to close in Q2 2016.
Sale to Golden Gate Capital
On 24 January 2017, Bob Evans Farms sold its restaurants business unit to the private equity company Golden Gate Capital (owners of Red Lobster and California Pizza Kitchen) for US$565 million plus the assumption of up to US$50 million in liabilities. In addition to the restaurants, Golden Gate Capital will also take ownership of the Bob Evans Farm in Bidwell, Ohio, near Rio Grande. Once the sale is finalized, Bob Evans Farms CEO Saed Mohseni will move to Golden Gate Capital to serve as President of the Bob Evans restaurant division. BFF Foods President Mike Townsley will become President and CEO of the new Bob Evans Farms, which would remain a public company and will focus on grocery products such as breakfast sausage and refrigerated side dishes. Net proceeds from the sale to Bob Evans Farms are expected to be between $475 million to $485 million.
On the same day, Bob Evans Farms entered into an agreement to acquire the Pineland Farms Potato Co. of Mars Hill, Maine, for US$115 million. Pineland Farms is a value-added potato processor, including a 900-acre (360 ha) potato farm, serving the retail and food service markets; they also operate a cheese processing business. Both the sale of the restaurant division to Golden Gate Capital and the purchase of Pineland Farms Potato Company closed on March 1, 2017.
See also
- List of casual dining restaurant chains
- List of restaurant chains in the United States
References
External links
- Bob Evans Restaurants official website
- Bob Evans Farms official website
- Bob Evans Farms, Inc. SEC Filings
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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