The company is looking to expand across the Northeast.

FREDERICK, Md. (AP) – A family that helped launch the first Roy Rogers restaurant has bought the company’s name and franchising rights in hopes of rebuilding the fast-food chain across the Northeast and Middle Atlantic.

Only 63 Roy Rogers outlets remain, compared with 648 at the company’s 1980s peak, but brothers James N. and Peter H. Plamondon, of Frederick, hope to double the number of stores within five years.

“I think you’ll see a lot more Roy Rogers popping up, that’s the hope,” James Plamondon, co-president of the Plamondon Cos., said Monday.

Roy Rogers has restaurants in Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia.

The brothers’ father, Peter Plamondon Sr., was an executive in the restaurant division of Marriott International Inc. 30 years ago when the Bethesda-based company and cowboy movie star Roy Rogers started the roast-beef sandwich chain. The elder Plamondon helped Marriott open the first Roy Rogers, in Bailey’s Crossroads, Va., before leaving to become a Roy Rogers franchisee with 16 restaurants, James Plamondon said.

Marriott sold the Roy Rogers business in 1990 to Canadian cigarette maker Imasco, which began converting the restaurants to outlets for its Hardee’s hamburger brand, banking on their locations to sustain sales. When that strategy failed, some were turned back into Roy Rogers stores and others were sold to McDonald’s, Boston Chicken and Wendy’s.

“It wasn’t something that failed because the brand was broken; it failed because of a real-estate decision that didn’t work out on the part of Hardee’s,” Plamondon said.

Imasco sold Hardee’s in 1997 but held on to Roy Rogers, finally selling it to the Plamondons for an undisclosed price. Imasco was acquired last year by British American Tobacco.

Plamondon said the brothers’ “Roy Rogers Rides Again” growth plan rests on the same menu as the brand’s existing chain: roast beef, fried chicken and hamburgers for adult appetites served in restaurants with more choices and slightly higher prices than McDonald’s and Burger King.

Foodservice consultant Jerry McVety, president McVety & Associates, of Farmington Hills, Mich., said the Plamondons face a tough challenge from casual dining chains such as Chili’s and Houlihan’s that have emerged in the past two decades.

“There are people who are more likely to go to that kind of restaurant because, if for no other reason, they do offer adult drinks,” McVety said. “When you’re taking an old concept and trying to resurrect it, it’s twice as difficult as coming up with a new one.”

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On the Net:

Plamondon Cos.: http://www.plamondonroyrogers.com

AP-ES-12-01-03 1728EST