The 20 restaurants “were not meeting expectations” despite efforts to improve their performance, Bob Evans Chief Financial Officer Mark Hood said in a release. The New Albany, Ohio-based company will offer affected employees positions in nearby restaurants “where possible,” and will offer severance to both full- and part-time employees when relocation is not possible, Bob Evans officials said.
There are more than 40 restaurants in southwest and west-central Ohio.
The restaurant chain has invested millions of dollars into area locations in recent years, including an extensive remodeling and renovation initiative launched in 2010 that the company called a “Farm-Fresh Refresh” revitalization.
The renovations were designed to update facilities, modernize the Bob Evans brand, and appeal to a changing demographic, company officials said at the time. The revitalization project led to a 5 percent increase in sales at the renovated restaurants, they said.
Last month, the company reported in its fiscal third-quarter 2015 results a 3.8 percent increase in same-store sales for the quarter, but even that encouraging performance came with a caveat: because of discounting, along with higher food and labor costs, the sales produced a 2 percent decline in operating income, “demonstrating the challenges we face in turning around performance,” Hood said.
Bob Evans announced in December that the company and its CEO, Steve Davis, were parting ways “by mutual agreement.” The company’s board of directors has yet to hire a permanent replacement.
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