IHOP (restaurant)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| IHOP Founded as The International House of Pancakes |
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| Type | Public (NYSE: IHP) |
| Founded | 1958 |
| Founder | Jerry Lapin and Al Lapin, Jr. |
| Headquarters | Glendale, California |
| Key people | Julia Stewart (CEO) Thomas G. (Tom) Conforti (CFO) |
| Industry | Restaurants |
| Products | Breakfast foods Pancakes • Waffles • French Toast Lunch • Dinner • Sandwiches |
| Revenue | ▲ $349.6 million USD (2006)[1] |
| Operating income | ▲ $72.8 million USD (2006)[1] |
| Net income | ▲ $44.5 million USD (2006)[1] |
| Employees | 897 (2005)[1] |
| Parent | DineEquilty, Inc. |
| Website | IHOP.com |
The International House of Pancakes (IHOP) is a United States-based restaurant chain that specializes in breakfast foods. While its focus is on breakfast foods such as pancakes, waffles, French toast, omelettes, and blintzes, it has evolved into also offering a menu of full course meals and a variety of desserts. As of March 31, 2008, the chain had 1,353 restaurants in 49 states, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Canada and Mexico. Currently, there is an IHOP planned to be built in Puerto Rico. The franchisee is currently being trained at the Keyport, New Jersey IHOP. Most of these locations (1,176) are franchises; 11 are corporate-owned; 157 are operated under area licenses.
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[edit] History
The International House of Pancakes was founded in 1958 by Jerry Lapin and his brother Al Lapin, Jr., and financial partners Albert Kallis and Sherwood Rosenberg. The first restaurant opened on July 7, 1958, in Toluca Lake, Los Angeles, California.[2] Since then, locations have been opened all over the United States, in the Canadian province of British Columbia and in the Mexican city of Monterrey. It also announced on October 23, 2006, that it is expanding into the province of Ontario as well. IHOP is headquartered in Glendale, California. The company uses the IHOP as its primary name, though they still use "International House of Pancakes" as a secondary name.
[edit] Restaurant designs and hours
The traditional A-frame restaurants are being phased out in favor of more practical designs, but the familiar blue roof often remains. The IHOP interiors no longer don the blue and red furniture in exchange for the new ICON prototype design, now required for all stores. The early "IHOP"-only branding era brought about a kangaroo logo, which has now disappeared. The majority of locations are open 24 hours at least part of the week, but many choose not to follow this policy on holidays such as Christmas and New Year's.
[edit] Service style and menu
Each table has its own sugar boat and four flavors of syrup dispensers: blueberry, boysenberry, butter pecan, and strawberry. Boysenberry is being phased out in many restaurants, replaced by plain syrup. There is also service of warm artificially maple-flavored corn syrup, brought out with every meal with pancakes/waffles. Recently, a major change was introduced in its core menu in an attempt to become more than just a breakfast restaurant. The new menu offers a diverse number of lunch and dinner entrees. Recently, Country Griddle Cakes disappeared from the menu, replaced by "Corn Cake Pancakes".
The "international" appellation of the chain derives from its three core crepe-style pancakes: "German" (served with powdered sugar and lemon butter with lemon slices), "French" (served with orange marmalade), and "Swedish" (served with lingonberries and lingonberry butter). These fruit-topped crepes are offered with an egg-and-meat plate as the "International Passport Breakfast". Menu offerings such as French toast and Belgian waffles further reinforce the international theme.[citation needed]
[edit] Promotions
Recent advertisement campaigns have featured slogans such as "Just For the Fun of It", "Why not eat breakfast for dinner tonight?", and most recently "Come hungry. Leave happy." Other ad campaigns have revolved around menu items with novel names, such as the "Rooty Tooty Fresh & Fruity Breakfast", which consists of an egg-and-meat plate and two buttermilk pancakes topped with fresh banana slices, cool strawberries, warm blueberries, or cinnamon-spiced apple compote.
On February 28, 2006, the chain held an annual "National Pancake Day" promotion offering a free "short stack" to each customer, with the request for each customer to voluntarily make a donation to charity. The short stack is three pancakes; the full stack, which was not free, is five. On February 20, 2007, the chain repeated this promotion, with donations benefiting Children's Miracle Network, or other local charities. On both dates, the promotion coincided with Mardi Gras and, more particularly, Shrove Tuesday celebrations, during which some cultures around the world observe the date as Pancake Day. Since 2006, IHOP's National Pancake Day celebration has raised over 1.85 million dollars. In 2008, over 1.5 million pancakes (12 miles high if they were stacked) were given to customers for donations.
[edit] Buyout of Applebee's
On July 16, 2007, IHOP Corp. stated its desire to acquire the bar-and-grill chain Applebee's International, Inc. in an all-cash transaction, valued at approximately US$2.1 billion. Under the deal, IHOP will pay $25.50 per share for Applebee's. IHOP stated it would franchise most of Applebee's 500 company-owned stores. Applebee's has 1,943 restaurants overall worldwide, including those operated by franchisees.[3]
With a larger than 70% vote, the company approved the takeover which was due to close on November 29, 2007. The deal beat 26 other offers to purchase the economically slumping Applebee's. A number of executives from Applebee's voted against the offer, the chain's largest individual shareholder, Applebee's director Burton "Skip" Sack plans to take IHOP to court to demand a higher amount of money to be paid to him as the purchasing price that IHOP is giving is unfair to the shareholders of Applebee's. As part of the purchase, a brand re-marketing scheme and revitalization of the Applebee's image will be undertaken.[4]
On November 29, 2007, the takeover successfully closed.[5] The corporate entity IHOP is changing its name to DineEquity (DIN).[6]
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d Joe Bramhall. IHOP Corp.. Hoovers. Retrieved on 2007-11-20.
- ^ IHOP - History. Retrieved on 2007-03-02.
- ^ IHOP to Buy Applebee's for About $1.9B.
- ^ IHOP's Tall Order: Reviving Applebee's.
- ^ IHOP completes purchase of Applebee's.
- ^ IHOP Changes Name To DineEquity >IHP.
