APPLEBEE’S

no’s Italian Classics to focus more on dine-in and suspended testing of “Rita the Robot." Cost savings cleared the way for Chili’s to implement TV advertising for the first time in three years.

Tony Moralejo, after three years as president of Dine Brands’ international segment, assumed the president role in January when John Cywinski headed to QDOBA. He stepped into a rocky operating environment. On the positive side, the chain closed 2022 with same-store sales growth of 1.7 percent—its eighth straight period of positive gains. It also lapped a previous year result of 9.1 percent over 2019. However, Applebee’s, which closed about 300 underperforming U.S. units across a five-year stretch, had to scale back previous plans to hit net unit growth in 2023. Yet it still believes it’ll open more stores than last year, only with a net loss of 10–20 outlets. But even with macroeconomic pressures stalling development, the brand continues to serve a resilient guest. The eight-quarter streak stretched into nine to begin 2023, with comps rising 5.1 percent. And Applebee’s told investors it held its No. 1 ranking across key consumer metrics like convenience and variety, per the company’s proprietary third-party tracker. Brand awareness was at an alltime high thanks to affordability and menu breadth. Sales rode promotions and abundant value programs, giving management reason to not only be optimistic, but to feel insulated against whatever challenge comes next.