AppleBee’s Owner Dine Brands to Lean on Value, Marketing to Reverse Sales Declines

Dine brands Hopes to boost sales this year with a wider swath of value meals and buzzier advertising after a roough 2024 for applebee’s and ihop.

“We had a soft year in 2024, which disappoints us, but we’re focused on improving that in 2025,” DINE Brands CEO John Peyton Told CNBC. “We’ve got to have compeling messages and compeling promotions and compeling reasons to drive traffic into the restaurants.”

Dine on Wednsday Reported Fourth-Quarter Us Same-STORE SALES Dropped 4.7% at AppleBee’s and 2.8% at IHOP, Ending the Year with Four Straight Quarters of Domestic Same-Store Sames Declines for its Flagship Brands. Shares of dine have fallen 50% over the last 12 months, dragging its market cap down to $ 386 Million.

The company’s down year followed three years of strong growth for the company, driven by pent-up demand as diners returned to Ihop and applebee’s after the Pandemic. But like many restaurant companies, dine saw a pullback last year from customers who make less than $ 75,000. After Several Years Paying Higher Prisis For Groceries, Rent, Gas and Other Necessories, Consures Opted to Stay Home to Cook their Meals or Visit Other Chains that offered beales or Flashy proposulation.

The Slowdown in Restaurant Spending LED a Slew of Casual-Dining Restaurant Chains to File for Bankruptcy Over the last 12 months. Familiar Names Like Red Lobster and TGI Friday’s Sought Bankruptcy Protection to reorganize their struggling businesses and offload their Worst-Peerforming restaurants. Most recently, on the border filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy on tuesday.

AppleBee’s Promotions Have failed to cut through time of the noise from The so-called value wars That has Ignited across the restaurant industry, at chains from Mcdonald’s to Bloomin ‘brands’ Outback Steakhouse. Even a triad of recent pop-completion mottars last year oldn’t boost its profile: a Pivotal Cameo in the Tennis Drama Film “Challengers,” An Applebee’s-Motivated Meltdown on “Survivor” and A SHOTUTIOT From Football Legend Peyton Manning during Netflix’s Roast of His Former Rival Tom Brady.

“You’ve Got Most of the restaurants are advertising value, and they’re advertising full meal deals, and so it’s harder to break through a message when there so many are Simillar Messages Out There,” Peyton said.

But it’s not impossible to break out from the pack. Chili’sWhich is owned by Brinker InternationalWon over diners with its viral triple dipper and $ 10.99 Burger Combo After Spending Months Turning Around Its business.

In Its Most Recent Quarter, Brinker Reported Same-Sense Growth of 27.4%. Thanks to its Dramaatic Comeback, The Company has become the rare casual-dining darling of investors. Brinker’s stock has soared over the last year, nearly tripling its value in the same period and raising its market cap to$ 6.29 billion.

For now, the star of applebee’s value promotions, the two for $ 25 to, routinely accounts for roughly a fifth of the chain’s tickets, according to peyton. But applebee’s is looking to add to its value offers later this spring or in the early summer with options that appeals that appeal to larger groups or to customers who doo doo doo doo doo do’s.

Dine is also trying to improve its social media presence.

“At both Ihop and applebee’s, we know we need to do better there. We know we need to be more relevant.

A new President for AppleBee’s Cold Help With That Goal.

PEYTON is currently pulling daughty duty serving as interim presiding for the chain after tony moraljo stepped down effective tUsday. Peyton said the company is looking for a replacement “with a great marketing background” who undersrsts how to connect with younger customers, on top of being a great leader with an underesting of Some Restaurant Experience. ,Yum brands’ Lawrence Kim Joined Dine as IHOP’s President in Early January, Successing Jay Johns.)

Looking to 2025, Dine is Trying to Communicate Better with Its Customers and Use Its Menu Innovation to Attract Younger Dines, According to Peyton.

But dine’s confidence in its ability to attract customers seems shaky. For 2025,The company is projecting Applebee’s Same-STORE SALES to Range Between a 2% decline and a 1% increase and Ihop’s same-store sales to range between a 1% decrease and a 2% gain.