Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Sonic Makes Forbes Top 200 List

The November 3, 1997, issue of Forbes Magazine calls its list of the 200 Best Small Companies in America a "dangerous place." Dangerous because continuing to stay on the list is a feat like no other. Only 42% of the companies listed last year remained on this year's list. Sonic Drive-In is one of those companies.

For the fourth consecutive year, Sonic has earned a spot on the highly acclaimed Forbes 200 as well as remaining on Success Magazine' Franchise Gold 100 list for the fifth consecutive year.

"The quick service industry is one of the toughest and most competitive businesses, and growth can be scary," said J. Clifford Hudson, president and chief executive officer of Sonic Corp. "Sonic continually differentiates itself from its competitors and gives customers a totally unique ex-perience. We listen to our customers and therefore their visits to Sonic are always fulfilling with memorable icons like skating carhops and on-lot music."

Hudson said, "Being listed on the Forbes 200 Best is especially rewarding, because it validates Sonic's strength and longevity. Sonic's total revenues increased 21.8 percent to $184 million in fiscal 1997. In 1998, we will be committing more resources to extend Sonic's message to new customers and to provide stronger incentives for qualified entrepreneurs to join Sonic."

Sonic views franchising as a major growth strategy, and has taken steps in 1997 to expand its franchise group.

"We can't imagine a better rank-ing of franchise businesses than the Success Franchise God 100," said Ken Keymer, president of Sonic Industries, Inc., the franchiser subsidiary of Sonic Corp. "More than 80 percent of Sonic's stores are owned by franchisees. Sonic's ranking in Success signifies our consistent performance with well-planned strategic growth initiatives that we will continue to focus on into the 21st century."

According to industry data, Sonic has had the highest customer frequency rate in the fast-food industry for several years running, and its strong year-end result prove it. As sales are down in the industry as a whole, Sonic recently reported higher-than anticipated sales and net income. Sonic's system-wide, same store sales grew 9.1 percent in the fourth quarter which ended August 31, resulting in an eight percent increase for the full fiscal year.

Sonic is known for its cooked-to-order food served by carhops who deliver food directly to customer's cars. Sonic has more than 1,700 drive-ins in 27 Sunbelt states. Sonic is the nation's largest chain of drive-in restaurants and America's's fifth largest hamburger chain. More than half a million people eat at Sonic Drive-Ins every day.