Ruby Tuesday (restaurant)

Ruby Tuesday Inc.

Type	Public (NYSE: RT)
Industry	Restaurants
Founded	1972
Founder(s)	Samuel E. Beall III
Headquarters	150 West Church Avenue Maryville, Tennessee, U.S.
Key people	Samuel E. Beall III (CEO/Chairman) Kimberly M. Grant (COO/EVP) Marguerite N. Duffy (CFO/SVP)
Products	Chicken, seafood, steaks, pasta, burgers, and salads
Revenue	$1.265 billion (USD) (2011)
Operating income	$52.622 million (USD) (2011)
Net income	$46.878 million (USD) (2011)
Employees	40,500 (2011)
Website	rubytuesday.com

Main entrance of Ruby Tuesday's Center for Leadership Excellence.

Ruby Tuesday is an American cuisine casual dining restaurant chain said to be named after the Rolling Stones' song of the same name. The restaurant is owned and operated by Ruby Tuesday, Inc., whose headquarters reside in Maryville,TN. The chain operates over 800 locations worldwide. Ruby Tuesday, Inc. is traded on the New York Stock Exchange (Symbol: RT).

History

The first restaurant was founded in 1972 by five University of Tennessee students. The location was adjacent to UT's Knoxville campus on Twentieth Avenue near Cumberland Avenue. The building still stands, but it is now occupied by a bar called the Roaming Gnome, next door to Stefano's Pizza, on the corner of Cumberland, both of which are local institutions in their own right.

In April 1982, Ruby Tuesday became part of the Specialty Restaurant Division of Morrison, Inc. The merger provided the chain with additional financial support to continue its growth. In March 1996, the shareholders of Morrison's approved a distribution and divided Morrison Restaurants, Inc. into three separate companies: Ruby Tuesday, Inc., Morrison Health Care, Inc., and Morrison's Fresh Cooking, Inc.. At the time of the distribution, Ruby Tuesday, Inc. operated many other restaurant brands in addition to their flagship Ruby Tuesday brand, including: L&N Seafood Grill, Silver Spoon Café, The American Café, and Tia's Tex-Mex.

Ruby Tuesday, Inc.

In 1997, Ruby Tuesday, Inc. purchased a property near Maryville College to develop a corporate retreat. The RT Lodge, as it came to be called, is also available for private use with advance reservations.

Ruby Tuesday, in Washington, D.C.'s Chinatown neighborhood.

In the summer of 1998, Ruby Tuesday relocated its Restaurant Support Center from Mobile, Alabama to Maryville, Tennessee. This location also contains an on-site training facility, the Center for Leadership Excellence (formerly known as WOW-U). These facilities are used as a development center and corporate office for the Company's restaurant managers and chefs.

In November 2000, Ruby Tuesday completed the sale of L&N Seafood Grill, Silver Spoon Café, The American Café, and Tia's Tex-Mex to Specialty Restaurant Group, LLC. This divestiture allowed Ruby Tuesday, Inc. to concentrate exclusively on the growth and development of its flagship brand.

On April 12, 2007, Ruby Tuesday, Inc. changed its NYSE ticker symbol from RI to RT.

On January 25th, 2012 the company announced their partnership with ezCater to help boost the company's catering sales.

Domestic and International Locations

As of May 31, 2011, Ruby Tuesday, Inc. has Company-owned and/or franchised Ruby Tuesday brand restaurants in 47 states and 15 foreign countries. The Company owned and operated 750 Ruby Tuesday restaurants, while domestic and international franchisees operated 43 and 53 restaurants, respectively. Their international locations include: Canada, Chile, Egypt, Greece, Guam, Honduras, Hong Kong, Iceland, India, Kuwait, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Trinidad, United Arab Emirates, and the United Kingdom.

Telford Plaza, Kowloon Bay, Hong Kong

Re-branding

"Bar-and-Grill"

In 2007, the Company began re-branding itself, moving out of the "bar-and-grill" segment of the industry, with changes including higher-quality menu items and handcrafted beverages.

Old Ruby Tuesday logo and slogan

As a part of re-branding, the company began remodeling its restaurants as a part of "a three-year plan to reposition, reinvent and reinvigorate the Ruby Tuesday brand". Ruby Tuesday CEO and Chairman Sandy Beall explains the re-branding in his letter to shareholders, found in the company's FY2007 Annual Report:

Elevating Ruby Tuesday above the crowd to a memorable, high-quality dining experience is critical to our growth and success. ... We began by bringing our guests fresh, exciting new menu choices, then raised our standards of service, and are now creating an innovative new look and style for each and every restaurant. This revitalization will appeal to our loyal core guests while attracting a new generation of consumers.

"Implosion"

In August 2008, Ruby Tuesday created a campaign to show how radical these changes would be. On August 5, over "live" streaming internet video, a demolition crew was supposed to implode the final "old Ruby Tuesday" in where they said was Mount Holly, Ohio but was actually in Harriman, Tennessee, to show their commitment of change in front of a small crowd. However, to the crowd's shock, the restaurant next door called "Cheeky's Bar and Grill" (which looked like a typical casual dining chain) was imploded. After the events, the senior VP of marketing for Ruby Tuesday (in actuality, an actor) posted a formal apology and a video of said apology on the Ruby Tuesday website and on TV. The idea was merely an elaborate marketing ploy to raise attention to the newly remodeled restaurants. In actuality, the implosion was a miniature done by a Hollywood special effects crew, then edited into the footage of the pre-recorded webcast to make it look like an accident.

A typical Ruby Tuesday restaurant in Durham, North Carolina.

Menu

Ruby Tuesday is well-known for their unique garden bar. Their offerings also include a wide array of dishes inspired from cuisine around the world. There are multiple options to chose from, including: fresh all-natural chicken, steak, seafood, ribs, pasta, or burgers. An allergen-sensitivity menu and nutritional menu are available upon request. The restaurant also offers a bar in most locations.

Ruby Tuesday outlet near the University of Virginia campus in Charlottesville

Cookbook

Ruby Tuesday released a cookbook on October 25, 2011 titled Simply Fresh: Casual Dining at Home by Jeff Morgan. The cookbook contains recipes that have been inspired by the menu, and even recipes that are signature to the brand.

Other Concepts

In August 2007, Ruby Tuesday Inc. acquired a local self-serve fresh Asian dining restaurant, Wok Hay. In October 2008, a second location was opened in a recently converted Ruby Tuesday restaurant building.

In September 2010, Ruby Tuesday Inc. continued its venture into other concepts with an agreement to license Lime Fresh Mexican Grill brand. Earlier in the year, Ruby Tuesday also acquired the development rights to Truffles Café, Marlin & Ray's Seafood Bar & Gill, and Jim 'N Nick's Bar-B-Q.

The Company's 2011 Annual Report noted a franchised Wok Hay restaurant in Trinidad. The Company is researching conversion of poorly performing Ruby Tuesday restaurants into these concepts. An excerpt from the 2011 Annual Report:

As of May 31, 2011, we owned and operated one Marlin & Ray’s, one Truffles, and two Wok Hay restaurants. We are currently evaluating the conversion of certain lower performing Ruby Tuesday concept restaurants to these concepts. We currently anticipate converting approximately six to eight company-owned Ruby Tuesday concept restaurants to the Marlin & Ray’s, Truffles, or Wok Hay concepts in fiscal 2012. Additionally, we anticipate opening one to two new restaurants and approximately seven to nine smaller, inline Lime restaurants in fiscal 2012.

External links

• Ruby Tuesday Website
• Simply Fresh Cookbook
• Wok Hay Website
• Lime Fresh Mexican Grill Website
• Truffles Café Website
• Marlin & Ray's Seafood Bar & Gill Website
• Jim 'N Nick's Bar-B-Q Website