History
Ruby Tuesday was born out of a $10,000 endowment Sandy Beall had received from a friend and operator of several Pizza Huts to open his own restaurant. With that money, and another $10,000 put together with four of his University of Tennessee fraternity brothers, the first Ruby Tuesday restaurant was opened in 1972. The location was adjacent to the University's Knoxville campus, and although the building still stands, the restaurant has since closed.
Over the subsequent decade, Ruby Tuesday extended their footprint with a new location opening about every nine months. In April 1982, Sandy sold the expanded 16-unit Ruby Tuesday chain to Morrison Inc. for $15 million in cash and stock. The sale provided the rapidly growing restaurant chain with additional financial support. It also saw Sandy become president of a newly formed Specialty Restaurant Division spearheaded by Ruby Tuesday. By 1985, the chain had grown to operate 35 locations, and was a major contributor to the renewed success of Morrison's.
Morrison Inc. was renamed Morrison Restaurants Inc. in 1992 to reflect the importance of their lucrative restaurant investments. Additionally, the company realigned their dining division with a new name, the Ruby Tuesday Group. That same year, Sandy was named CEO of Morrison Restaurants Inc. On March 9, 1996, the shareholders of Morrison's approved a distribution and dissolved Morrison Restaurants Inc. into three separate companies; Ruby Tuesday Inc., Morrison Health Care Inc., and Morrison's Fresh Cooking Inc.
Ruby Tuesday Inc. became the legal successor to Morrison Restaurants Inc. and was incorporated in Mobile, Alabama. At the time of the distribution, Ruby Tuesday Inc. operated many other restaurant brands in addition to their flagship Ruby Tuesday brand, including: L&N Seafood Grill, Mozzarella's Café, Silver Spoon Café, and Tia's Tex-Mex. In November 2000, Ruby Tuesday Inc. completed the sale of all restaurant brands (with the exception of Ruby Tuesday) to Specialty Restaurant Group, LLC. This divestiture allowed Ruby Tuesday to concentrate exclusively on the growth and development of its namesake brand. On April 12, 2007, Ruby Tuesday Inc. changed its NYSE ticker symbol from RI to RT.
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