New look for Ruby Tuesday

Article Excerpt

RUBY TUESDAY, INC. $7.99 (New York symbol RT; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative) (865-379-5700; www.rubytuesday.com; Shares outstanding: 63.7 million; Market cap: $509.0 million; No dividends paid) has just announced a new plan to refocus its operations. Under this initiative, the company will discontinue three of the new restaurant concepts it was developing: it’s closing its 13 Marlin & Ray’s restaurants and its single Wok Hay location. It’s also selling its two Truffles Grill restaurants. The company will keep 15 of its 17 newly launched Lime Fresh locations; it will close the remaining two. The plan is being carried out by J.J. Buettgen, whom Ruby Tuesday appointed as its new president and CEO in November 2012. Buettgen was formerly the chief marketing officer at Darden Restaurants (symbol DRI on New York). Darden is the world’s largest casual dining operator. Ruby Tuesday hired him for his expertise in promoting multiple brands. As well, he has worked on turning around Darden’s well-established but underperforming Olive…