Bob Evans comes clean on discounting
The hit show “Dancing with the Stars” has nothing over public companies’ quarterly conference calls with financial analysts. Executives have to watusi through a review of their charges’ financial performance and hopefully moonwalk past decisions that might not look that brilliant in hindsight.
Bob Evans Farms didn’t even cue the music in its call this week. “Not every change made will work as planned and the second quarter is unfortunately a case where a well-conceived plan did not,” declared Executive Chairman Doug Benham, a no-nonsense guy throughout his long restaurant career.
Management tried to reverse a 5-percent slip in traffic during the prior quarter by offering more price-off deals, Benham explained. Instead of pulling more customers through the door, the deals just lightened the tabs of patrons who might have visited anyway. Comps declined 3.2 percent.
“Restaurant turnarounds are not for the timid, and some of the challenges we faced during the quarter prove it,” said Benham.