Robert Westbrook, Chairman, Texas Dairy Queen Operators’ Council, made the following statement today:
Texas Dairy Queen Operators’ Council
Today is an incredibly exciting day as we look to the future of Texas Dairy Queen (www.dqtexas.com) and the amazing opportunities ahead of us.
Our beloved and stalwart president, Larry Newell, will be concluding his almost 25-year tenure with TDQ on January 31, 2017. Under Larry’s leadership our statewide sales have grown considerably, as have individual restaurants’ average unit volume. Larry’s guidance has ensured that our unique Texas Dairy Queen brand has been firmly protected and forever entrenched in the cultural fabric of Texas. Larry has been a tactful ambassador and fearless defender of our Texas Country Food System. Larry has consistently represented us with grace, strength, and courage. We’re so thankful that Larry has also agreed to remain available through January of 2018 to consult and advise the Board as needed.
We’re now launching a full-scale search for a new leader for TDQ. The successful candidate will be a proven leader with great communication and team-building skills. They will possess successful and tenured experience in directing a brand. While we do not yet know who the new leader is, we are confident that he or she will be uniquely suited to catapult TDQ into ever higher levels of success—able to execute with excellence in a collaborative way.
I am pumped for the future of Texas Dairy Queen.
Our Senior Leadership Team has never been stronger. With Greg Regian as our CMO and Susan Beaty as our CFO we’re repositioning and reallocating resources to ensure our dexterity to meet the ever-changing needs of the quick service restaurant industry. Along with our great staff, the Board of TDQOC is committed to ensuring our future market share grows and grows and grows.
Texas Dairy Queen is one of the greatest companies in the nation. I love this organization. I love the bigness and boldness of what we do. I love seeing the smiles brighten upon faces of the guests we serve when the Blizzard® is flipped. I love the stories folks have about their local Dairy Queen. I love seeing a team member starting out with us as their first job and then growing into the General Manager of a million-dollar-plus business. And I love our franchise community: comprised of families who have, in many cases, been growing with TDQ for two and three generations.
Above all, I love the unique diversity of the Great State of Texas and how much our great customers love their Texas Dairy Queens.
On behalf of the TDQOC Board of Directors, we express our gratitude for Larry’s enormous contributions. Larry will never be replaced, nor should he be. But I confidently believe that we’ll find a new leader with the passion, resolve, and talent to guide and direct our future.
Robert Westbrook
Chairman of the Board
Texas Dairy Queen Operators’ Council
Larry Newell, President, Texas Dairy Queen Operators’ Council, made the following statement:
The Texas Dairy Queen Operators’ Council is one of the most unique organizations ever contemplated, and it has been an every-day joy to work with and for some of the best people in I’ve ever known. Initially, it was contemplated that the position I accepted in 1992 would not exceed seven years. Well, seven years is now twenty-four years. Ever hear the phrase, “time flies when you’re having fun?”
I’m grateful for my tenure at TDQOC, but there is a time for all good things to end, and the TDQOC Board and I have agreed that my last day actively on the job will be January 31, 2017. I’ve agreed to the Board’s request that I remain on call for consultations, as needed, for another year.
TDQOC will immediately begin a search for someone to replace me, and I look forward to helping the “new guy (or gal)” any way I can.
The Texas DQ system has never been stronger. New franchisees are joining second, third, and soon fourth generations of Texas franchisees. The TDQOC staff is the best it has ever been. The hallmark of the Texas DQ system, the Texas Country Food menu, will continue to innovate and give Texas consumers the best, most convenient food in Texas and the country.
All in all, it’s been a fun run, and I’m confident that the future of Texas Dairy Queen is the brightest it has ever been.
I wish all my DQ friends – staff, suppliers, franchisees and board, the very best.
Larry Newell
President
Texas Dairy Queen Operators’ Council
Contact:
Michael D. Clarke
817-310-9107
mdc@dfwdq.com
