(Food-Beverage-News.Com, October 31, 2012 ) San Francisco, CA- Ruby Tuesday’s CEO led his last meeting as head of the restaurant chain he started 40 years ago at the Knoxville campus of the University of Tennessee.
At the gathering in the chain’s headquarters in Maryville, Sandy Beall was upbeat about the future of the business.
“I’m not sad about leaving, I’m ecstatic, not just for me but for the company,” he said, according to the Daily Times. “Because a company isn’t about a person… A company is about the culture and the people that make it up.”
Beall had announced in June that he would step down. The search for a new CEO has started, and a selection is expected by the end of the year.
The company director, Donald Ratajczak, expressed gratitude for Beall’s leadership. “His legacy will be with us forever,” stated a proclamation presented by Ratajczak.
The company reported that net income fell in the first fiscal quarter to $2.6 million from $3.1 million from the same period a year ago. The international restaurant chain made five cents a share, excluding one-time items. Revenue rose 1% to $332.9 million over the past year even though dozens of restaurants have been shuttered.
The casual-dining chain that operates in 45 states, the District of Columbia and Guam and 12 other countries has 712 company-owned restaurants and 78 franchised outlets.
In other business at the annual meeting in Maryville, Lane Cardwell and Jeff O’Neill won election to the board, and Kevin Clayton was retained.
Beall said he was grateful for the support he received as he built the Ruby Tuesday chain from a single eatery.
“I would like to thank all of our 36,000 team members, all the people who have helped, who have been through all the challenges of the last five years as we figured out how to make this brand stronger and how to keep it rolling for another 20, 30, hopefully 40 years and create value for all our shareholders,” he said. “Ruby Tuesday has a lot of opportunity and it’s a solid brand.”
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