IE Business Daily Business news for the Inland Empire.
Sonic, the drive-in restaurant chain, will add 33 locations in California during the next seven years, including at least two in the Coachella Valley.
The expansion, which will include all parts of the state, will be facilitated by the expansion of two franchise agreements and the addition of two others, according to a company statement.
Combined, the restaurants will create an estimated 1,500 jobs. They’re expected to be up and running within the next six years.
Sonic currently has 68 restaurants in California, including eight in the Inland Empire, according to the company’s website.
The chain’s first new Coachella Valley restaurant will be located in Indio, with the second location slated for somewhere in the Palm Springs area, John Budd, Sonic’s chief development and strategy officer, said today in an e-mail.
No timeline for the development of those restaurants has been announced.
Sonic has not identified any other Inland Empire locations, but it plans to consider all markets as it looks to expand further in California, Budd said.
Oklahoma City-based Sonic has approximately 3,500 restaurants in the United States, about 90 percent of which are franchised. The chain serves about three million customers a day.
