SONIC CORP. /Oklahoma City, Oklahoma Restaurant Chain Fights Off Its Winter Blues.(A)(The New America)

Byline: Marilyn Alva

Investor's Business Daily

Clifford Hudson usually has a sunny disposition, as befits the chief executive of Sonic Corp., a carhop chain in the Sun Belt. But even the chain's tater totsand cherry limeades couldn't keep the winter blues at bay this year.

Starting in November, sales at many of Sonic Corp.'s 2,200 drive-ins were dampened by cold, wet weather. In Sonic's top 20 markets, Hudson told analysts,temperatures in November were 15 degrees

lower than the year before. Precipitation was three times as high.

The bad weather kept away customers in core states Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana.

Bad weather was blamed for systemwide same-store sales declines in the …