Along with its second quarter financial results reported earlier in the month, casual full service chain Ruby Tuesday Inc. announced that it has conducted a review of its restaurant real estate portfolio and will close 30 locations, 15 of which will be closed upon lease expiration. Of the 30 restaurant closures, 27 are expected to close in third quarter and three are expected to close in fourth quarter. Eight of the restaurants to be closed are company-owned and will be marketed for sale after the closing date. The units were not identified. The Maryville, Tennessee-based chain of over 800 restaurants reported total revenue of $276.2-million for the 13-week period ending in early December 2013, a drop of $23.9-million from the second quarter a year earlier, primarily due to a decrease in same-restaurant sales at company-owned Ruby Tuesday restaurants. Same restaurant sales decreased 7.8 percent at company-owned Ruby Tuesday restaurants and decreased 5.3 percent at domestic Ruby Tuesday franchise restaurants compared to the same quarter of the prior year. Same restaurant guest counts were down 6.3 percent for the quarter, but reflected an improvement over the first quarter decline of 10.8 percent. Chairman, President and CEO JJ Buettgen noted, “We made solid progress in the second quarter as our strategies to reposition Ruby Tuesday to a more casual, energetic, and broadly-appealing brand began to gain traction. We continue to focus on the four pillars of our brand transformation: menu, service, atmosphere, and communication. The second quarter was the first full quarter that our initial wave of new menu items was available to the entire system. We are committed to our brand transformation strategy and in building on this early momentum. A critical piece of our brand transformation is lowering our overall cost structure and we will continue to aggressively work toward implementing cost savings in areas that do not negatively impact the guest experience.” The company predicts that same-restaurant sales will be down mid single digits in the third quarter and down low single digits to flat in the fourth quarter.  It expects to generate $12 to $1- million of cash proceeds from the disposition of excess real estate in fiscal 2014.

CATEGORY:   Full Service Casual

Chain Name:  Ruby Tuesday

Company Name:  Ruby Tuesday Inc.

Street Address: 150 W. Church Ave., Maryville, Tennessee 37801

Tel:  865/379-5700          Fax:  865/379-6817

Email:   guestservices@rubytuesday.com                          Website:    www.rubytuesday.com)

Menu Specialty:   American classic menu, Fresh 100% USDA Choice or prime  beef, handcrafted burgers

Introduced:  1972

No. of Locations:  Over 770 company-owned and/or franchise Ruby Tuesday brand restaurants in 45 states, the District of Columbia, eleven foreign countries and Guam. The company-owned and operated restaurants are concentrated primarily in the Southeast, Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, and Midwest of the United States, considered to be the company’s core markets……..

Areas of Operation:  Primarily in the Southeast, Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, and Midwest of the United States

Types of Location:  Freestanding and end cap or corner units in upscale strip plazas

BusinessType (corp., franchise, jv):  Public Company, Franchise, Corporate

Size Req’d:

Special Requirements (patio, drive-thru, etc): 

Contact Name:   James J. ‘JJ’ Buettgen- Chairman, President, CEO

Todd Burrowes – President, Ruby Tuesday Concept, COO

Jeff Wood – SVP, Chief Development Officer

Michael Moore – EVP, CFO

Scarlett May - SVP, Chief Legal Officer, Secretary

Jill Miller – Manager, Franchise Relations (franchisesales@rubytuesday.com  865/379-6741)

REAL ESTATE REPRESENTATIVES:

FRANCHISE REPRESENTATIVES:

Related Chains:  Lime Fresh

Last Report:    Restaurant & QSR Expansion Report #109    Last Update: