Ruth's Hospitality Group
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 | |
| Nasdaq: RUTH | |
| Industry | Restaurants |
| Founded | May 2008 |
| Defunct | June 2023 |
| Fate | Acquired by Darden Restaurants |
| Headquarters | Winter Park, Florida, USA |
| Products | Luxury food service |
| Revenue | 468,026,000 United States dollar (2020)  |
| Website | None |
Ruth's Hospitality Group, Inc. was a restaurant company with a focus on American steakhouse restaurants. Ruth's was acquired by Darden Restaurants in June 2023.[1]
The group was rebranded in May 2008, shortly after Ruth's Chris Steak House acquired the Mitchell's Fish Market and Columbus Fish Market brands from Cameron Mitchell Restaurants.[2] The company was rebranded with a new name by CEO Mike McDonnell to reflect the broader diversity of restaurants in its portfolio. The company resold the MFM restaurant chain in 2014 for $10m to Landry's.[3]
The period immediately after the acquisition of the Mitchell's restaurants in February 2008 was turbulent and resulted in the ousting of CEO Craig Miller, who Mike O'Donnell replaced in April 2008.[4] In 2009, RHGI reported declining revenues at both the Ruth's Chris and the Mitchell's brands, with a drop of 22% in Q2 2009.[5] By 2010, O'Donnell had begun to reverse the decline, and in 2011, he was able to report an increase of 9.2% in revenue for Ruth's Chris and a decrease of just 2% for Mitchell's. Overall revenues rose by $15.9m to $353.6m.[6] In a statement to shareholders, he attributed this to their growing success in private dining and catering facilities, as well as improved services for business customers.[7]
In February 2013, RHGI reported a rise in revenues of 7.9% to $398.6 million in 2012 compared to $369.6 million in the prior year. They noted that 4th quarter sales at Ruth's Chris restaurants were up 7.0% on the previous year, representing the 11th consecutive quarterly increase in sales and 20% growth over three years. The Mitchell's brands showed an increase of 5.2% over the previous year.[8][9]
RHGI continued to add new restaurants to the Ruth's Chris chain, including in Harrah's casino in Las Vegas in January 2013, after the previous Las Vegas location in the Flamingo closed in 2009.[10][11] The company has announced plans for 2013 that include expanding the Ruth's Chris brand into China,[12] a new Ruth's restaurant in Denver, Colorado, and four or five new franchised Ruth's locations.[8]
In 2014 the company announced the resale of its Mitchell's brand to concentrate on its Ruth's Chris Steak House chain.[3]
In May 2023, it was announced that Darden would acquire RHGI in a $715 million deal. The deal was completed in June of that year.