Denny’s Plans to Move Its Irvine Headquarters to South Carolina

Denny’s Inc., the family restaurant chain, said it will move its headquarters from Irvine to Spartanburg, S.C., to centralize its operations with those of its parent company, TW Services.

Denny’s also said it had appointed Bernard Scott, 57, as chief executive. Scott replaces Sam Maw, a TW Services executive who has operated the 315-restaurant chain since 1988.

Thursday’s announcement of the move surprised many of the 500 headquarters executives in Irvine, said Roger Shively, vice president in charge of human resources. It was not known how many jobs, if any, would be cut in the move, which will take two to three years.

“There are certain people who we have asked to make the move. We will consider requests from anybody else,” Shively said.

Denny’s, which began as a doughnut shop in 1953, underwent a face lift in 1987 after it was bought by TW Services. Menus were updated, restaurants were renovated and the work force was slashed by about 25%.

In the first six months of this year, Denny’s reported earnings of $58.7 million, up nearly 20% from the $49 million in earnings for the same period in 1989.

TW Services, a $3.5-billion conglomerate, also owns the Canteen Inc., El Pollo Loco, Hardee’s and Quincy’s Steakhouse chains.