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Rally Stores history
Rally Stores company history timeline
In 1991, as Rallye reeled toward the brink of bankruptcy, with a crippling debt load of FFr 4.5 billion, Cam turned toward outside help.
To attract new owner-managers, Sugarman began reducing royalty costs for franchise holders, and, in 1992, after two very promising and profitable years, Rally's even rebated $700,000 to franchisees.
1992: Naouri leads Rallye in a sellout to Casino; as part of the sale, Rallye takes a 30 percent share in Casino, while maintaining majority control of Go Sport and Courir.
The expansion continued in 1993, when Rally's bought West Coast Restaurant Enterprises in a stock exchange agreement and acquired three franchised Rally's restaurants in Bakersfield, California.
In fact, they had actually entered agreements as early as November 1994, when Rally's, through an exchange of property and a waiver arrangement, acquired some leases for Checkers restaurants and converted five existing units into Rally's restaurants.
1994: The Athlete's Foot stores in France are converted to the Courir format.
A managerial shake-up followed. Thus, in 1994, the company was forced to abandon some planned expansion projects, including additional real estate purchases and infrastructure investments.
In 1995, Rally's introduced some new sandwiches and price points in an effort to outflank the value-meal strategy adopted by Wendy's and McDonald's that was deeply undercutting the 99-cent signature hamburger market of the double drive-thru chains.
In 1995, Courir acquired another French athletic shoe network, Run Up.
What it needed was some new marketing strategies and restructuring. Its stock, once valued at $20 a share, dropped to about $2.50 in the last quarter of 1995, and the company was suffering losses at 55 underperforming units outside its core market.
However, it still lost ground. For example, its 1996 advertisements were found by industry analysts to be extraordinarily inept, "adolescent, brainless, and offensive," full of appetite-suppressing sexual suggestiveness.
New negotiations were started in November 1997, when Rally's entered a management agreement with Checkers.
Other, more essential changes began in 1997.
Beginning in 1997, as a test, it remodeled five double drive-thru units into restaurants with indoor dining, with encouraging but inconclusive results.
In 1997, its revenues dropped to $144.9 million, off about 11 percent from the previous year.
1997: Rallye acquires control of the Casino group.
In a bid to reach new markets, Rally's management announced an alliance with WSMP Inc., a food processor and restaurant operator, in March 1998.
Third quarter financial news improved slightly in 1998, but was still a loss of over $1 million dollars for Rally's; nor was there good financial news for Checkers, which posted a third-quarter loss of $1.47 million.
After Dorsch arrived in December 1999, he quickly moved to reduce the number of company-owned restaurants by selling them to franchisees.
The Casino group pursued its expansion both in France--notably with the 1999 purchase of the Guyenne et Gascogne group--and internationally, particularly with the entry into the Eastern European and South American markets.
The merger was complete in the summer of 2000, and thereafter the two operated as brands of the Checker's Drive-In Restaurants holding company.
2000 opened with a different kind of ad campaign.
In 2000, Rallye merged both Courir and Moviesport into Go Sport, which then changed its name to become Groupe Go Sport.
2001: Rallye begins the restructuring of Athlete's Foot.
The early success of the format led Rallye quickly to roll it out into a network of nine stores by the end of 2002.
Groupe Go Sport also was expanding strongly, adding some 20 new stores in 2002 alone.
As the French supermarket scene reached maturity--forced in large part by legislation severely restricting new store openings, Rallye stepped up its international expansion for future growth, more than doubling its foreign sales by the end of 2002.
2002: Rallye raises its share of Casino to nearly 64 percent of voting rights.
By the beginning of 2003, that operation counted 322 stores--including 131 Go Sport stores, 181 Courir stores, and ten Moviesport stores.
The restructuring did not, however, hamper Athlete's Foot from stepping up the expansion of its network--by 2003, the company expected to open some 200 new franchised and company-owned stores worldwide.
After the highs and lows that the year 2008 presented for the Kansas Sampler brand, the Lieberts made the decision to expand to other markets.
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Rally Stores may also be known as or be related to Rally Stores, Rally Stores Inc and Rally Stores, Inc.