Franchisees Open 10 Applebee’s Restaurants

Biz Journals:

Applebee’s International Inc. franchisees opened 10 restaurants during November.

The Overland Park-based casual-dining chain (Nasdaq: APPB), whose $2.1 billion sale IHOP Corp. (NYSE: IHP) of Glendale, Calif., is expected to close this quarter, opened no company-owned restaurants during the four weeks that ended Nov. 25, Applebee’s said in a release Thursday.

Applebee’s ended the period with 510 company restaurants and 1,455 franchised restaurants. IHOP has said it intends to franchise most of Applebee’s company-owned restaurants.

For the year through Nov. 25, Applebee’s and its franchisees have opened 66 restaurants and closed 31.