General Manager Of the Year award.
Ovation Brands – parent company to Ryan’s, HomeTown Buffet, Old Country Buffet, Country Buffet, and Fire Mountain- recently celebrated its best and brightest, while introducing a new award at its annual Champion’s Circle conference in Boca Raton, FL. The General Manager Of the Year honors the best performing general manager in the entire system, and the very first award was bestowed upon Thomas Earle of the Ruston, LA Ryan’s. In addition to Earle, three other general managers were also recognized for their exceptional performance this past year: Marc Albert of the Kennewick, WA Old Country Buffet, Jeffrey Pannier of the Englewood, CO Country Buffet, and Mary Sargent of the Chattanooga, TN Ryan’s,
“The achievements of these general managers and the launch of this new award will serve as an inspiration for other team members to strive for bigger goals,” said Greg Graber, Chief Operating Officer for Ovation Brands. “These managers have developed the right blend of leadership, hard work, dedication, and business savvy to lead their teams to be successful. They all also demonstrate a commitment to our “hospitality-first” service format and an openness to the changes that are occurring for the company, as we are reinventing each brand.”
In addition to these leadership and hospitality qualities paired with their commitments to their local communities, finalists for the General Manager Of the Year award demonstrated significant growth in sales and profits over the past year. Each finalist received a $5,000 bonus. The top winner received the cash bonus, as well as a trophy engraved with his name, and a new Mercedes.
Ovation Brands currently operates 334 restaurants in 35 states, comprised of 324 steak-buffet restaurants and 10 Tahoe Joe’s Famous Steakhouse restaurants. The restaurants area principally operated under the Old Country Buffet, HomeTown Buffet and Ryan’s brands. Ovation employs over 17,000 team members and serves approximately 100 million customers annually. Corporate headquarters are based in Greer, SC with a Corporate Support Center located in Eagan, MN. For more information, visit www.OvationBrands.com.
