Mr. Owens: The company was founded by Bob Evans, the person. Around 1948, when he came back from service, he opened a 12-stool diner which was known as The Steakhouse down in Gallipolis, Ohio. It was a 24-hour place, basically a truck stop. He really didn't like the sausage that was available to him for cooking for breakfast so he started making his own and became quite well-known for it because it was with select cuts of meat and just a higher quality product than what was typically available. He started selling it in 5- and 10-pound tubs to people who came through. Not long after that, he got together with some friends and relatives and formed a corporation. I believe that was in 1953. They built a small sausage plant and got into the sausage business as it was more promising than the restaurant business at that time. They developed throughout Ohio and surrounding states over the years, and in the late 1960s decided to go into the restaurant business and built the first restaurant in Southern Ohio. It really has grown from there. We've now grown to be just over 1 billion in sales and are operating in 22 states with 470 restaurants and 40,000 employees. We have a fairly broad line of retail and foodservice grocery products as well as, of course, our restaurants, which have now become almost 80% of our business.
TWST: In terms of the restaurants, how do you cite them in the market?
What's your customer aim?
Mr. Owens: We compete in what's generally known in the family dining
segment or what we kind of call family casual because the line is
blurring a little bit between family dining and casual, at least in our
concept. It's sit-down table service, no alcohol, breakfast, lunch and
dinner, and we focus on very high quality food and great service. So I
think that the niche that we're targeting is in the upper end of that
family dining segment.
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