Shoney's
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| Type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Casual dining restaurant |
| Founded | 1947 in Charleston, West Virginia |
| Headquarters | Nashville, Tennessee |
| Key people | Alex Schoenbaum, Founder David Davoudpour, CEO |
| Website | www.shoneys.com |
Shoney’s is a privately held restaurant chain that operates primarily in the Southeast, Midwest and Mid-Atlantic states of the United States and is headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee. It is named after Alex Schoenbaum, who was the owner of the original chain of Big Boy restaurants in the southeastern United States in the 1950s. The corporate entity is Shoney’s North America Corp., and David Davoudpour is chairman and chief executive officer. Davoudpour acquired Shoney’s in 2006 through Royal Hospitality Corp. in Atlanta. He is founder and chairman of Royal Hospitality. As of early 2011, there were approximately 230 company-owned and franchised Shoney’s restaurants in 18 states, stretching from Maryland to Florida in the east and from Missouri to New Mexico in the west.
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History [edit]
In 1947 Alex “Shoney” Schoenbaum opened the Parkette Drive-In next to his father’s bowling alley in Charleston, West Virginia. Schoenbaum became a Big Boy franchisee on August 5, 1952, now calling his several locations the Parkette Big Boy Shoppes. In May 1954 a public "Name the Parkette Big Boy Contest" was announced and in June 1954 Schoenbaum's five Parkette Drive Ins were rebranded as Shoney's.
Shoney's [the Parkette] was originally the Big Boy franchisee for West Virginia. However Schoenbaum rapidly grew the Shoney's chain through subfranchising, expanding his Big Boy territory through the Southeastern United States, excluding Florida only because the rights already belonged to fellow Big Boy franchisee Frisch's.
Schoenbaum's earliest subfranchisees operated under their own name. In 1956 a subfranchise was sold to the Boury brothers in northern West Virginia who operated as Elby's. Elby's Big Boy units were originally listed with Shoney's units on the back of the Shoney's menu and even in the late seventies Elby's West Virginia operations were listed as Shoney's operations in the Shoney's comic books. In 1955 Leonard Goldstein became a subfranchisee in Roanoke, Virginia. Originally operating as Shoney's, he eventually changed to Lendy's Big Boy after another Shoney's subfranchisee called Yoda's Big Boy opened across town. After this, all subfranchises went by Shoney's.
Doubling in size every four years, Shoney's became the largest Big Boy franchisee, operating over a third of the Big Boy restaurants nationwide. As Shoney's dominated Big Boy, a 1959 franchisee named Raymond Danner would dominate Shoney's — acquiring the company in 1971.
In 1969 Shoney’s created a fast-food seafood concept called Mr. D’s, named after Ray Danner, co-founder of Shoney’s, Inc. The name was later changed to Captain D's and grew to more than 100 restaurants. The company (Shoney’s, Inc.) went public in 1971 and was listed as “SHO” on the New York Stock Exchange. At various times, the corporate portfolio also included a lodging chain (Shoney’s Inns), four casual dining concepts (Fifth Quarter, The Sailmaker, Barbwire’s and Pargo’s), and Lee’s Famous Recipe Chicken.
In 1984 a dispute arose between Big Boy and Shoney’s franchise holders about territory restrictions and Shoney’s ultimately gave up its rights to the Big Boy name. As a result, the Big Boy sandwich was renamed the “All-American Hamburger” and Shoney Bear was created as a corporate mascot.
At its peak in 1998, the restaurant chain operated or franchised over 1,300 restaurants in 34 states. None of those businesses remain a part of the Shoney’s restaurant enterprise today.
In 2000 the company went bankrupt and was acquired by Texas-based investment group Lone Star Funds two years later. On January 1, 2007, Lone Star announced that the Shoney's chain — at this point down to 282 restaurants — was being sold to David Davoudpour, founder and CEO of Atlanta, Georgia-based Royal Capital Corporation, the largest franchisee of Church's Chicken restaurants. Davoudpour set up a new company, Shoney's North America Corp., as a subsidiary of Royal, and currently serves as chairman and CEO. Lone Star had originally planned to sell the chain to Centrum Properties, a Brentwood, Tennessee investment group, but Centrum later sued to get out of the deal.
As part of his revitalization efforts, Davoudpour has established an aggressive quality improvement process that includes a new menu, new restaurant prototypes and rebuilds, and a new Executive and Operations team focused on adding unique twists to the Southern comfort food menu for which Shoney’s is known. He also brought in Kenneth Pierson to commandeer reinvigoration to the company, especially given his plethora of turnaround projects.
Shoney's Inn [edit]
In 1975, the restaurant chain founded Shoney's Inn, a motel chain. After the motels were sold off in 1991, Shoney's continued to collect royalties on the name. Between 2002 and 2006, the last remaining Shoney's Inns were re-branded as GuestHouse.[1]
References [edit]
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This article needs additional citations for verification. (September 2012) |
