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- In-N-Out’s owner Lynsi Snyder reaffirmed the company’s headquarters will remain in California, despite her family’s upcoming move to Tennessee to support the burger chain’s eastern expansion. Snyder emphasized her deep ties to California and the brand’s heritage, but cited cost-of-living challenges as a reason for offering employees new opportunities to raise families and buy homes in more affordable states.
The billionaire president and heiress of the In-N-Out burger empire has reaffirmed her commitment to keeping the company’s headquarters in California, after telling a podcast earlier this week that her family will be moving to Tennessee where the business is opening a new office to support growth.
Lynsi Snyder is the fourth in her family to lead the business, which was first opened by her grandfather Harry nearly 80 years ago with a store in Baldwin Park.
The business has rapidly expanded since then, with locations now stretching into states like Texas and Colorado, and a new eastern territories office planned for Franklin, Tennessee.
Speaking on the ‘Relatable’ podcast earlier this week, Snyder said her family will be moving east while the business will continue to handle the bulk of its operations from its home state of California.
Snyder explained her reasons for the personal move: “There’s a lot of great things about California, but raising a family is not easy here. Doing business is not easy here. The bulk of our stores are still going to be here in California, but it will be wonderful having an office … growing out there.”
Since the podcast, Snyder has clarified and reconfirmed that the company—which has become somewhat emblematic of the California food scene—is committed to the Golden State and is not moving its headquarters to Tennessee.
In a video posted to her Instagram page, Snyder told followers: “We’re not leaving California, or leaving our roots behind. Each one of our locations is here to stay.”
If anything, the company is doubling down on its commitment to its heritage, with Snyder telling the podcast that the company’s two offices in Baldwin Park and Irvine would be consolidating under the roof of the former—the site of its original home.
In the update posted to her social media, she continued: “Moving into Tennessee provides our In-N-Out associates wonderful opportunities to buy a home and raise a family, and be part of our expansion in a different part of the U.S.”
“Where I raise my family has nothing to do with my love and appreciation for our customers in California,” the mother-of-four added.
Cost-of-living considerations
For In-N-Out employees either in stores or their head office, achieving the dream of owning a home is particularly tough in the brand’s home state. Per data from Zillow, the average price of a home in California is upwards of $786,000, while a 2022 study from nonprofit Child Care Aware of America (CCAoA) found the average annual infant center-based childcare cost was $18,201.
Tennessee, by contrast, has an average home price of a little under $335,000—less than half of its Cali counterpart—and respective childcare costs come in at approximately $10,800 a year.
These are facts Snyder seems well aware of.
The woman worth $7.3 billion per Forbes continued in her social video: “There’s so many opportunities for people to own homes in Tennessee and even some of the surrounding states that we could possibly end up in. It’s tough here in California and this doesn’t have to do with my love or loyalty to the state and our customers, but I love our associates and I would love to offer them this, just like we’ve offered other states that provide different things to them.
“The dream of of a home and a family is more feasible there for sure.”
Snyder’s path to taking over the top role and the ownership of the company has not been a straightforward one. Her uncle, Rich Snyder, took the helm of the company in 1976 following the death of its founder—his father, Harry Snyder, and his mother, Esther.
But Rich himself died in a plane crash in 1993 with Snyder’s father, Guy, taking over the running of the company. However, Snyder’s father died in 1999, leaving Lynsi—at the age of 17—the last of her family custodian of the empire.
Despite this succession of events, Snyder said the commitment of In-N-Out today, on a much larger scale, is the same as that of her grandparents: “We are committed to quality, that’s something that I know people understand. We’re one of the most trusted brands because of that, because we don’t cut corners, we don’t compromise, and we don’t sacrifice the very high standards that were set by my grandparents and my father and my uncle.”
She concluded: “We never forget our roots, and I talk all the time about the tiny little stand that my grandparents ran and the handful of people that did it and how starting there, we’ve ended up with over 40,000 associates in this family, and we keep doing the same thing that we did in 1948.”
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
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