By Gerardo R. Partido
Variety News Staff

RUBY Tuesday’s U.S. corporate office has announced the expansion of the franchise to Guam starting late this year.
Ruby Tuesday is one of the nation’s leading casual dining restaurant companies, with more than 900 company-owned and franchised restaurants throughout the U.S. and all over the world.
Its first franchised restaurant on Guam will be developed and operated by RT Restaurants LLC. Principal investors in the franchise company include Ron Mullers and Ted Davenport.
Mullers is the developer of Papa Ron’s Pizza restaurants and has been a restaurant franchisee in Indonesia for more than 25 years. He has over 35 years of experience in the hospitality business.
Davenport, on the other hand, holds the current franchisee for highly successful Ruby Tuesdays in Hawaii and is also a principal of a Ruby Tuesday franchisee in Southern California.
According to Mark Ingram, Ruby Tuesday’s president for franchising, developing a Ruby Tuesday on Guam creates a huge opportunity for exposure of the chain’s brand to people from throughout Southeast Asia and Japan because over a million tourists visit Guam every year.
“We believe this new franchise will be a spring board for additional development of Ruby Tuesdays in other countries in this part of the world,” he added.
The Ruby Tuesday concept was born more than 30 years ago, when current chairman and CEO Sandy Beall opened the first restaurant near the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.
Since then, the company has grown to almost a thousand company-owned and franchised restaurants in 43 states and 15 countries around the world.
Ruby Tuesday is aggressively franchising territories in the western United States and in international locations.
The Guam Premier Outlets in Tamuning is being eyed as the location for the new Ruby Tuesday.