Side dishes, renovations key to Bob Evans growth in central Ohio

Bob Evans By the Numbers

$165 million invested in Ohio since 2011

Bob Evans continues to invest heavily in central Ohio to improve its business prospects and to combat the difficult sales climate for family style restaurants.

The Ohio-based food giant’s latest Springfield investment, the $5 million transportation center in Airpark Ohio, officially opened in November, providing 110 jobs to the area. That’s a small portion of the $165 million Bob Evans has invested in Ohio in the last five years.

Bob Evans has three Springfield restaurants — each with 75 to 80 employees — and all of which have been renovated. Each renovation adds between five and 10 jobs, said Margaret Standing, Bob Evans spokeswoman.

The company also was the first corporate partner announced for a new agricultural biosciences school that will open next year in Springfield.

Not all of the company’s news locally has been good. Bob Evans announced earlier this year that it will close a food processing plant here that employs about 50 people.

According to the NPD Group, which does market analysis on restaurants, mid-scale restaurants such as Bob Evans really struggled during the recession and are just now gaining back visits. Bob Evans has offset that by producing and selling pre-packaged food items.

“Visits to U.S. restaurants did increase by 1 percent, and spending was up 2 percent for the year ending September 2012 compared to same period last year,” said Kim McLynn, NPD spokeswoman in an e-mail. “However, the full-service restaurant segment is still experiencing declines … The mid-scale/family dining segment declined by 3 percent in the year ending September 2012.”

Bob Evans improved its finances in second quarter 2012, according to numbers released in November. Its Mimi’s Cafe continues to decline, but overall Bob Evans earnings are up 12.3 percent over last year, due in large part because of investments in pre-packaged food items and renovating its Bob Evans restaurants.

“Both segments have transformed their operations and their approach to the marketplace during the last six years,” the company’s chairman and CEO, Steven Davis, told securities analysts during a recent conference call. “Both have been the drivers of our annual 9 percent adjusted (earnings per share) growth over the last five years.”

Besides investing in local restaurants, Bob Evans has chosen to focus on Springfield for distribution of food items.

“We’ve had a great relationship with the city of Springfield since the company began,” Standing said. “Having our plant there in that area has been good to us.”

Bob Evans announced earlier this year that it will close its food processing plant at 2110 W. Jefferson St, eliminating 52 full-time jobs. Standing said those employees have been encouraged to apply for open positions in the company and should seek transfers to other facilities such as the new transportation center, which hired 30 new people for the opening.

Some of those displaced workers from the plant, which will close in summer 2013, could look to Bob Evans’ latest investment, Kettle Creations in Lima. That plant — which was purchased by Bob Evans this year and is being expanded — produces mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese and other side dishes, which Standing says are high-growth products for Bob Evans.

“The acquisition of that plant is consistent with our long-term strategy for growth in side dishes and ready-to-eat foods,” Standing said in an e-mail. “And the future expansion of Kettle Creations allows us to present more job opportunities to our current plant employees in Springfield.”

The new transportation center distributes those food products and others to grocery store warehouses or to Gordon Food Service — which then sends the food to Bob Evans restaurants, Standing said.

Bob Evans also sold a distribution center in Airpark Ohio to partner Miller Refrigerated Services a year ago, which continued to employ local workers.

“We’re happy about that deal because Miller is a partner that wanted to grow in Ohio, so we knew they had potential for growth and would be a good long-term partner for the area,” Standing said, highlighting Bob Evans’ partnerships with other businesses and the community. “As we grow and change, it may not always be through the most traditional means but through partnerships like (the Global Impact STEM Academy) we’re doing to create internships in the ag-bio field.”

Bob Evans is the first corporate partner for the STEM school, which is set to open fall of 2013 in the former South High School. Bob Evans will provide internship opportunities for students and provide assistance with building a curriculum focused on food, fuel and fiber industries.

Bob Evans’ continued partnership with Springfield helps local economic development leaders market Springfield as a viable place to do business.

“Our community has a long history of food manufacturing and distribution with a strong nucleus of businesses and a long tenure of success,” said Horton Hobbs, vice president of economic development for the Greater Springfield Chamber of Commerce.

Besides Bob Evans, Springfield houses operations from Gordon Food Service, Dole, Reiter Dairy and Woeber Mustard.

Hobbs said businesses are attracted to the location and ease of transporting and distributing goods across the country using the areas easy access to Interstate 70 and 675.

That, and the big names already here, bring “incredibly important credibility to the community,” Hobbs said. “It speaks to its location and ability to meet industry needs.”