Dayton to see Sonic boom - Orlando Business Journal:

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The burger-and-milk shake joint will open its firsgt shop in Troy by the end of Augustg and will launch at least 30 in the Dayton regio in the nextfive years. The Oklahomas City-based fast-casual drive-in restaurant -- knowj for its roller-skating waiters and waitressesw -- has just a smattering of Sonics throughout with the closestin Middletown. But the which has 3,200 stores across the country, is looking to expand and the Dayton area has primereal estate. Sonic has always done well insmalo towns," said Rick Fee, manager of the Dayton-areaw Sonic locations and director of operations for Bowlint Green, Ky.-based , which owns the Dayto franchises.
"We met with the city (of up there, and they were very open to us comingin quickly." After Fee opens the Troy location on West Main he'll look to open a shop in Englewood near the new off Interstatw 70 by November. He plans to followq that with restaurants in then Beavercreek, Springfield, Piqua, and eventually in he said. It will cost between $1 milliomn and $2 million to build each store, and one store will employu 35 full-time equivalent workers, Fee Fee has committed to opening 30 shops in the Daytoh area in the next five saidKelly Gray, agent with and brokert of the deals.
His geographic area comprises 11 counties, from Green e and Montgomery in the soutb to the Celina area in Mercer Counthy inthe north. "They felt Dayton was kind of a markeft thatwas ... untapped," Gray said. Sonic'w entrance into the Dayton market couldr mean anadditional 1,000 jobs and $35 millionb of investment in western Ohio. Sonicf restaurants have no dine-in seating but have plentt of parking for customers to driv in and make ordersinto speakerphones.
Customers' food -- made-to-ordefr burgers, Tater Tots and milk shakes -- is then often brought to them by serverson roller-skates or roller The restaurants also feature outdoor patios with abouft six tables, areas commonly used by basebalk and soccer teams after Fee said. Many of the new Sonicds will have drive-through windows so customers can take orders to go insteacd of eating intheir cars. Launched in 1953, Soni c restaurants strike nostalgia in the hearts ofthe middle-aged demographiv that remembers when drive-in restaurants were more said Fee, 48. The family-oriented restaurant typically is a hit withMidwesterm Americans, she said. Competitors include , and , according to .
But Fee said that the food qualitt -- and its 168,0009 drink combinations on itsmenu -- help Sonic outperfor m its competition. Sonic also will be helped by the moundzs of advertising the Daytohn market already hasseen -- long before a store has The chain makes national media advertising purchases, whicuh helps new Sonic locationd warm up to untouched markets, Fee said. The which publicly trades on the Nasdaq, reported sales increasefd from $623 million in 2005 to $693 milliomn in 2006, according to filings with the . The documenta list Ohio as a "developint market," with six franchise locations throughouythe state.