How Sonic Drive-In Prepared for Natural Disasters -- and Then Thrived Despite 2017's Hurricanes
The franchise already broke its record for number of stores opened.
’s signature drive-in model seemed to be a liability in 2017, when Hurricane Harvey damaged or closed many of its 950-plus restaurants in Texas and pushed same-store sales down 3.3 percent in the final fiscal quarter.. “One of the beautiful things about our system is that we have a disaster-relief fund that our franchises contribute to,” says senior VP of franchise relations Eddie Saroch. “So the recovery effort is faster and better than most. The fact that we work together as a to get stores back up and running means that the business regains momentum fast.”
