Though retired, Bob Evans keeps an eye on company

The focus on farm-freshness is essential, Evans says.
RIO GRANDE, Ohio (AP) -- The 12-stool steakhouse that sat next to a busy truck terminal on a state route in nearby Gallipolis had a problem: It could not get quality sausage to serve the truckers who filled the place 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Starting with $1,000, a couple of hogs, 40 pounds of black pepper, 50 pounds of sage and other secret ingredients, the farmer opted to make his own, using a hog's best parts as opposed to the scraps commonly used for sausage. He sold it at the restaurant and mom-and-pop stores, and peddled tubs of it out of the back of his pickup truck.
It marked the beginning of what has grown into a $1.1 billion-a-year enterprise spread over 30 states, including 522 restaurants in 22 states that serve 161 million people a year.
"People like to deal with farmers. They like to buy stuff from the farm. They think it's fresher," said Bob Evans, 85. "In their mind, it's better, and they're willing to pay more for it."
Celebration
This year, Bob Evans Farms Inc. is marking the 50th anniversary of when Evans and five relatives and friends joined as partners to incorporate the company.
As part of the celebration, the company has turned Evans' old farmhouse -- where he and his wife, Jewell, raised their family -- into a museum. It includes an exhibit showing some of the company's early television ads of the couple in their kitchen in the mid-1950s.
The 1820s-era brick house is on nearly 1,000 acres that has turned into a major tourist attraction in southeast Ohio's rolling Gallia County.
The company has been listed on the Nasdaq stock market since 1963. An investor who bought 1,000 shares at $9 each then would now have more than $2 million in company stock. The company also has grown from five employees to more than 40,000.
"Bob is a creative guy, an idea man, a quality-control specialist. That was really the role he played," said Stewart Owens, chairman and chief executive of the company that moved to Columbus in 1968.
Staying in touch
Evans retired as president in 1986. He still draws a crowd when he walks into the Bob Evans restaurant in this southeastern Ohio town just a stone's throw from the farmhouse.
He warmly greets longtime employees at the restaurant he visits several times a week and even brings them flowers grown in his garden at his home a couple of miles away.
"He's great, one of the nicest people you'll ever find," said Diana LeMaster, 41, of nearby Oak Hill, a server at the restaurant for 23 years. "He doesn't know any strangers."
Childhood friend and classmate Loeta "Pete" Abblett, 84, said Evans was fun to be with as a child, a mischievous boy who often ended up in the school office.
"Bob liked everybody. He's a good PR man," said Abblett, who still sees Evans once a month when the two get together with other classmates for breakfast in Gallipolis.
Blunt opinions
Still, Evans can be blunt, and he does not hold back on criticizing the company.
On his list: a failed Mexican concept, Cantina del Rio, that the company tested in the 1990s. "That was a disaster," he said.
Also, he says, some acquisitions were a factor in his retirement. "Boy, this is the time for me to get out of here. They weren't asking my opinion."
He said the company will have problems if it ever strays from the original idea of emphasizing farm-fresh products.
At the 1996 annual meeting, shareholders accused Dan Evans, Evans' cousin who succeeded his father as chairman and chief executive, of trying to erase his cousin's image from restaurants and corporate offices. They also asked that the founder be reinstated as company spokesman, in which role he was commonly seen wearing a Stetson hat and string tie in advertising.
Owens, who succeeded Dan Evans, said he generally does not seek out the opinions of retired executives, but he does talk to Evans two or three times a month.
"Bob's been retired a long time, and the business has changed a lot," he said.
Pleased with performance
With the company more focused now and the stock trading higher, Evans said he is happier with the company's performance.
"They're doing a pretty good job," he said. "They got rid of all those dogs."
Analysts credit the company's success to building a business emphasizing quality food, cleanliness, service and also a homey atmosphere in the restaurants -- which now make up 83 percent of sales.
"Family values are reflected at every aspect of the operation, from the menu to the decorations," said Chris Boring, president of Boulevard Strategies, a Columbus-based company that follows the retail industry.