IHOP Expands Franchising

IHOP reports that, with the signing of the new franchise deals in the third quarter, the company's franchise pipeline at the end of the quarter included signed or optioned commitments for franchisees to develop a total of 388 new restaurants in the US, Mexico and Canada in the next 13 years, with options extending until 2019. In addition, the restaurant chain is finalizing legal agreements for additional franchise development that could add up to 110 more locations to the development pipeline, which would bring total signed, optioned and pending commitments to as many as 498 restaurants.

The multiple-store development agreements that were signed during the third quarter included five new IHOP restaurants in the next eight years within Pierce and King counties in the state of Washington with an existing IHOP franchisee who operates three of the chain's restaurants in California and Washington. Another deal calls for two new IHOP restaurants in the next three years within Skagit and Whatcom counties in the Washington with a franchisee who operates one IHOP restaurant in Washington.

A third agreement provides for three new IHOP restaurants in the next five years in a portion of the region of Niagara, including Niagara Falls and the city of Barrie, Ontario, Canada, with a franchisee new to the IHOP system but with more than 55 years of restaurant operations experience in the Niagara Falls market. In the Virgin Islands, one agreement calls for an existing IHOP franchisee to open two new IHOP restaurants in the next five years on the Island of St. Thomas. In addition to the multiple-store agreements, IHOP signed two single-store deals for locations to open in the next 12 to 18 months in Georgia and Virginia. The company also amended existing franchise development agreements, adding another six new restaurant commitments to its development pipeline.