sevilsivle

Buffalo Wild Wings vs. DineEquity: Which Is Stronger for the Long Term?

BWLD continues to be a fresh concept. DIN has two old and rundown ideas that they are trying to pawn off as "brand new". BWLD has a guest interaction momenteum with all of the video and audio features available at their locations. DIN is just boring and with the current leadership in place they have no one to step forward and improve the brand of Applebees so that it can be competitive in the future. BWLD will continue to grow in it's number of units and DIN will not. The really sad part of this is that DIN will begin to roll over these poor perfomance numbers in the second quarter of 2009 and the leadership will claim some type of "long term" victory. BWLD is a good bet and DIN is still on it's last leg and if the franchise community of the Applebees brand does not step up and get the majority of the company held units under their control we could see DIN underwater by the forth quarter of 2009. Good decision making by BWLD leadership is evident and DIN simply has no leadership. DIN will have to pay out the retention bonus to it's managers in the second quarter of 2009 due to the deal it struck upon accquistion. Let's see what that looks like in March and April and how many of the field leaders will get off that sinking ship once they have their money.

Darden Restaurants, Dine Equity: A Look at 2 Value Plays

I agree that DRI is a fixer upper, however DNI is doomed to failure under the leadership of Stewart. The loss of the CFO should raise the red flag here. DRI did not make near the same bad deal that Stewart sold to the board at what is now DIN. You are right when you say Stewart has her hands full.

DineEquity's Capitalization Meltdown: What Took So Long?

I also work for DineEquity and do not claim to be a top performer. I have been with the brand for eight years and on both the corp. side and the franchise side. This was started by Richard Breeden but in no way his fault or the fault of Lloyd Hill, or Dave Gobel. Breeden just held the board accountable for poor performance and at the time it was poor. The industry in cyclic and it will be back. When the good times come back around and sales are great and profits are good whoever is in charge will be a hero. Julia Stewart does have an ego issue and I do agree she used her position with IHOP to leverage a personal war on those at Applebees that did not give her what she thought she deserved. For her to make statements like "We are not concerned about the state of the economey, the price of gas, or weather issues" as she did in Las Vegas is an example of her egomania. Stewart has ruined the lives of thousands, from the upper management to the dishwasher with her personal agenda. She has cut bonus dollars for managers through unattainable goals and cut the hours of valued associates which in turn has killed the guest service. If you come to Applebees please understand that we are doing the best we can with what this crazy woman, Julia Stewart, has given us.