From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Bob Evans Farms, Inc. NASDAQ: BOBE, is a food service, processing, and retail company based in Columbus, Ohio. The company is named after its founder, Bob Evans. It operates two chains of casual dining restaurants in the United States including Bob Evans Restaurants and Mimi's Cafe. It is also a food processing and retail enterprise selling products under the Bob Evans and Owens Country Sausage brand names.

The Bob Evans Restaurant chain started from a single truck stop diner near the Bob Evans Farm in Rio Grande, Ohio, which is just north of Gallipolis, Ohio, and has grown to almost 600 locations in 23 states, primarily in the Mid-Atlantic, Midwestern, and upper Southern states. All locations are corporately owned, not franchised.

A view of the Bob Evans Farm in Rio Grande, Ohio with a Bob Evans restaurant on the left

The restaurant chain started after Bob Evans kept hearing patrons at his truck stop say that they thought his sausage was the best around. Bob slaughtered and packaged his own sausage using a unique recipe, but did not have the manufacturing capacity to fill large orders. He made a business arrangement with his cousin J. Tim Evans who was then the owner of Evans Packing Co. to package the Bob Evans Sausage products at Tim's plant.

Tim Evans is retired and still maintains his residence near the original Bob Evans Restaurant in Rio Grande. Another relative, Dan Evans, served as CEO until his retirement in 2000. Bob Evans also continued to reside in Rio Grande until his death on June 21, 2007. ^[1]

The company also offers pork products to the retail grocery market, as well as some other prepared food products to both the grocery and food service segments. The restaurant chain was started because local restaurants would not purchase the high-quality pork sausage the company produced, saying that customers would not pay extra for quality.

The primary theme is one of country living: "Breakfast is served all day."

A side view of a Bob Evans Restaurant

The company acquired Texas based Owens Country Sausage in 1987. The company branded its otherwise identical restaurants in Texas as Owens Restaurants due to trademark issues; all Owens restaurants were closed in January 2006. [1]

The company also operates the Mimi's Cafe chain, consisting of 100 locations across the United States, which feature a French café theme. Some of the markets that have the Mimi's chain do not have Bob Evans Restaurants and vice versa.

The company also operated a Mexican-themed restaurant called Cantina del Rio in the mid-1990's, a move which Bob Evans himself called "a disaster."^[1]

The Evans family controlled daily operations of the company until 2000 when Dan Evans (Bob's cousin) retired as CEO. After Dan's retirement, Stewart K. Owens (a former officer of the Owens Country Sausage company and later president of BOBE) assumed control of Bob Evans Farms Inc. as CEO. In 2001, he became Chairman of the Board. Company profits faltered under Owens' tenure. In August 2005, after corporate profits had dropped in eight of the previous nine quarters, Owens announced his resignation. Officially, the cause of Owens' departure was "personal reasons" but many business analysts believed Owens' departure and Bob Evans disappointing results were more than a mere coincidence. After operating for several months under interim CEO Larry Corbin, the company hired Steven Davis, the former president of Long John Silver's, as CEO in May 2006.

On April 19, 2007, Bob Evans closed 11 restaurants, primarily in Florida and Ohio, in addition to some other states due to poor performance in those stores.

• Official site - Bob Evans