DENNYS: A GRAND SLAM

SUCCESS STORY
Submitted To:

Dr. Nazmul Amin

Course: MBA 509
Section: 01
Submitted By:

Md. Injamul Ahmed

Nargis Sultana
Rabia Akter
Md. Abdullah

ID# 1630942
ID# 1630942
ID# 1631013
ID# 1631014

Date of Submission: 7th November, 2016

INDEPENDENT UNIVERSITY, BANGLADESH

Letter of Transmittal
7th November, 2016
Dr. Nazmul Amin Majumdar
School of Business
Independent University, Bangladesh
Subject: Submission of report for MBA 509
Dear Sir,
It is our pleasure to submit our report on Dennys: A Grand Slam Success Story. We are
submitting this report as a part of our course requirements.
We have done our level best to conduct this report in a professional manner. We have followed
all the criteria and guideline that you provided us to prepare this report. However, we are sure
that this report could have been a more superior one. We are hopeful that this has obviously
been a great source of learning for us to conduct similar Human Resource studies in future.
We appreciate your kind advice, cooperation, patience and suggestions regarding this report,
which will definitely help us to follow as a guideline in future endeavors.
Sincerely Yours,
-------------------------------

Md. Injamul Ahmed Nargis Sultana

ID # 1630942
ID # 1630924
School of Business School of Business

Rabia Akter
ID # 1631013
School of Business

Md. Abdullah
ID # 1631014
School of Business

Acknowledgement
Firstly, we would like to thank Almighty Allah for giving us the opportunity and ability
to prepare this case studys question and answer successfully. With Allahs shower of
blessing, we have completed this report with all the necessary information.
First and foremost, we would like to express our sincere gratitude to our course
instructor Dr. Nazmul Amin, School of Business, Independent University Bangladesh
for his constant guidance, advice and encouragement as well as passion in
motivating the completion of our report. We would also like to thanks to ourselves.
Without our team work we might not have completed this report.
Finally, we would like to give our Sincere thanks to our beloved family members for
offering consistent support in many ways and will always be remembered and deeply
appreciated to us.

Executive Summary

Table of Content

Introduction
Dennys Corporation (Dennys) is one of Americas largest franchised full-service
restaurant chains based on the number of restaurants. Dennys, through its whollyowned subsidiary, Dennys, Inc., owns and operates the Dennys brand. At
December 30, 2015, the Dennys brand consisted of 1,710 franchised, licensed and
company operated restaurants around the world with combined sales of $2.7 billion,
including 1,599 restaurants in the United States and 111 international locations. As of
December 30, 2015, 1,546 of our restaurants were franchised or licensed,
representing 90% of the total restaurants, and 164 were company operated. Dennys
is known as America's Diner, or in the case of our international locations, the local
diner. Open 24/7 in most locations, we provide our guests quality food that
emphasizes everyday value and new products through our compelling limited time
only offerings, delivered in a warm, friendly come as you are atmosphere. Denny's
has been serving guests for over 60 years and is best known for its breakfast fare,
which is available around the clock. The Original Grand Slam, introduced in 1977,
remains one of our most popular menu items. In addition to our breakfast-all-day
items, Denny's offers a wide selection of lunch and dinner items including burgers,
sandwiches, salads and skillet entres, along with an assortment of beverages,
appetizers and desserts. In 2015, Denny's average annual restaurant sales were
$2.2 million for company restaurants and $1.6 million for franchised restaurants. At
our company restaurants, the guest check average was $9.69 with an approximate
average of 4,400 guests served per week. Because our restaurants are open 24
hours, we have four day parts (breakfast, lunch, dinner and late night), accounting
for 24%, 35%, 22% and 19%, respectively, of average daily sales at company
restaurants. Weekends have traditionally been the most popular time for guests to

visit our restaurants. In 2015, 36% of an average week of sales at company

restaurants occurred between Friday late night and Sunday lunch.
Dennys is a full-service pancake house/coffee shop/fast casual family restaurant
chain. It operates over 1,700 restaurants in the United States (including Puerto Rico
and Guam), Canada, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Curaao, Costa Rica,
Venezuela, Honduras, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Qatar, and the United Arab
Emirates.
Denny's is known for always being open, serving breakfast, lunch, dinner, and
dessert around the clock. Unlike many other restaurant chains, Denny's does not
close on holidays and nights, except where required by law. Many of their restaurants
are located in proximity to freeway exits, bars, and in service areas. Denny's started
franchising in 1963, and most Denny's restaurants are now franchisee-owned. (About
Us, Denny's, 2016)

Company History
Denny's was founded by Harold Butler and Richard Jezak opened Danny's Donuts in
Lakewood, California in 1953. In 1955, after Jezak's departure from the then-6-store
chain, Butler changed the concept a year later in 1956, shifting it from a donut shop
to a coffee shop with store #8. Danny's Donuts was renamed Danny's Coffee Shops

and changed its operation to 24 hours. In 1959, to avoid confusion with Los Angeles
restaurant chain Coffee Dan's, Butler changed the name from Danny's Coffee Shops
to Denny's Coffee Shops. Two years later, in 1961, Denny's Coffee Shops was
simply renamed Denny's. The business continued to expand, and by 1981, there
were over 1,000 restaurants in all 50 US states. The company absorbed many of the
old Sambo's restaurants, and used their mid-century design in some of their future
restaurants. In 1977, Denny's introduced the still-popular Grand Slam breakfast. In
1994, Denny's became the largest corporate sponsor of Save the Children, a
national charity. All but six Denny's closed for the first time ever on Christmas 1988;
many of the restaurants were built without locks, and some had reportedly lost their
keys. Denny's main offices were located in La Mirada, California, until 1989. At that
time, the office was first moved to Irvine California and subsequently moved to the
Spartanburg, South Carolina, headquarters of the parent company Trans World
Corporation (TW Corporation) that acquired Denny's in 1987. In 1992, private equity
firm, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts acquired a 47% interest in TW Corporation, later
known as The Flagstar Companies, and encouraged the company to sell non-core
businesses. Eventually, Denny's operations dominated the parent company to such
an extent that The Flagstar Companies changed its name again to Denny's
Corporation. It now trades on the NASDAQ under the symbol DENN.
Denny's offers a free meal to anyone on his/her birthday. The offer included a limited
number of meal options from a special birthday menu. The promotional ritual began
in the 1990's; though occasionally individual franchises have offered it before that
time. Since 2009 its restaurants offer a free Birthday Slam on the customer's
birthday.

In 1994, Denny's began renovating its stores, with a lighter color scheme; select
locations also began serving Baskin-Robbins ice cream for a short time. Houston,
Texas, was the test market for the chain-wide renovation

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