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Ruby Tuesday Appoints Jeffrey C. Wood as Chief Development Officer and Announces the Addition of Key Finance and Culinary Leadership Positions

By: Ruby Tuesday |  4 Shares     90 Reads

MARYVILLE, Tenn. - May 6, 2013 - (BUSINESS WIRE) - Ruby Tuesday, Inc. (NYSE: RT) today announced the appointment of Jeffrey C. Wood as Senior Vice President and Chief Development Officer. Wood, a restaurant development veteran with over 27 years of industry experience, joins Ruby Tuesday from his most recent role as the Chief Development Officer of Qdoba Restaurant Corp. Before joining Qdoba, Jeff worked in various senior real estate development roles for Dave & Buster’s, Inc., Brinker International, Inc., and TGI Friday’s, Inc., in addition to working in the restaurant leasing division of Simon Property Group, a leading shopping mall owner and real estate company. He holds an MBA and BBA from Southern Methodist University, both with real estate concentrations. Jeff’s experience will be instrumental in the support of the repositioning effort around design elements for the Ruby Tuesday brand, in addition to future real estate design and development strategies for the Ruby Tuesday and Lime Fresh Mexican Grill concepts.

Wood joins two recent new hires to the Ruby Tuesday senior management team, Jill Golder and Mark Bibby. Jill joined the Company in early April as Senior Vice President Finance and she brings over 25 years of industry experience, most recently serving as the CFO of Cooper’s Hawk Winery & Restaurants. The majority of Jill’s industry experience has been in various senior finance roles for Darden Restaurants, Inc., including work with Olive Garden, Red Lobster, and the Specialty Restaurant Group brands. Jill’s responsibilities will include financial planning and analysis for both the Ruby Tuesday and Lime Fresh concepts, in addition to sales forecasting and marketing investment optimization.

We are also pleased to announce that Mark Bibby joined the company in late March as the Vice President of Culinary & Beverage – Executive Chef. Mark brings more than 35 years of experience in the restaurant industry as a concept chef for private and public companies, most recently serving as the VP of Culinary Operations for Smokey Bones Restaurants. He also has experience with several Canadian companies, having served as Executive Chef at SIR Corp, a Canadian restaurant company with three concepts, including varied-menu casual dining chain Jack Astor’s. Mark’s experience in the areas of menu development and implementation will be leveraged in the launch of a broader range of food items that are in line with Ruby Tuesday’s more casual and approachable menu positioning.

JJ Buettgen, President and CEO, commented, "We are pleased to welcome Jeff, Jill, and Mark to our senior management team as they complement and further strengthen our organization. Their skills, in tandem with our existing leadership team, will help facilitate our plans to reposition Ruby Tuesday to a more lively and approachable brand position which we believe has the potential to increase our sales and profitability.”

About Ruby Tuesday

Ruby Tuesday, Inc. has Company-owned and/or franchise Ruby Tuesday brand restaurants in 45 states, the District of Columbia, 11 foreign countries, and Guam. As of March 5, 2013, we owned and operated 709 Ruby Tuesday restaurants and franchised 77 Ruby Tuesday restaurants, comprised of 33 domestic and 44 international restaurants. Our Company-owned and operated restaurants are concentrated primarily in the Southeast, Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, and Midwest of the United States, which we consider to be our core markets.

Ruby Tuesday, Inc. is traded on the New York Stock Exchange (Symbol: RT).

Special Note Regarding Forward-Looking Information

This press release contains various forward-looking statements, which represent our expectations or beliefs concerning future events, including one or more of the following: future financial performance and restaurant growth (both Company-owned and franchised), future capital expenditures, future borrowings and repayments of debt, availability of financing on terms attractive to the Company, payment of dividends, stock and bond repurchases, restaurant acquisitions, and changes in senior management and in the Board of Directors. We caution the reader that a number of important factors and uncertainties could, individually or in the aggregate, cause our actual results to differ materially from those included in the forward-looking statements (such statements include, but are not limited to, statements relating to cost savings that we estimate may result from any programs we implement, our estimates of future capital spending and free cash flow, our targets for annual growth in same restaurant sales and average annual sales per restaurant, and the benefits of our television marketing), including, without limitation, the following: general economic conditions; changes in promotional, couponing and advertising strategies; changes in our guests’ disposable income; consumer spending trends and habits; increased competition in the restaurant market; laws and regulations affecting labor and employee benefit costs, including further potential increases in state and federally mandated minimum wages, and healthcare reform; guests’ acceptance of changes in menu items; guests’ acceptance of our development prototypes and remodeled restaurants; our ability to successfully integrate acquired companies; mall-traffic trends; changes in the availability and cost of capital; weather conditions in the regions in which Company-owned and franchised restaurants are operated; costs and availability of food and beverage inventory; our ability to attract and retain qualified managers, franchisees and team members; impact of adoption of new accounting standards; impact of food-borne illnesses resulting from an outbreak at either Ruby Tuesday or other restaurant concepts; our ability to complete our planned sale-leaseback transactions; effects of actual or threatened future terrorist attacks in the United States; and significant fluctuations in energy prices.

Contacts:

Ruby Tuesday, Inc.
Greg Ashley
865-379-5700
VP Finance & Treasurer

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