- In-N-Out CEO Lynsi Snyder is relocating from California to Tennessee as the company builds an eastern territory office, signaling a cautious expansion. While reaffirming In-N-Out’s California roots, Snyder cited family and business pressures in the state and teased future growth from Texas into nearby states—though East Coast fans will still have to wait.
Lynsi Snyder is a born and bred Californian, and makes no secret of her love for the state where her grandparents founded cult burger empire In-N-Out. But the CEO revealed she is leaving the Golden State for Tennessee, where the company is building a new eastern territory office, teasing a potential push to expand even further across the U.S.
Snyder took over the West Coast chain at the age of 27, following in the footsteps of her grandfather, father and uncle who led the business prior to her succession.
Having grown up in Northern California, Snyder recounted in a recent episode of the ‘Relatable’ podcast how she worked her way up the ranks of the business, from toiling away in stores to helping her grandmother with community work, to running the business’s merchandising branch.
Now at the helm of the business with a net worth of $7.3 billion, Snyder is expanding In-N-Out into new pastures and wants her family to benefit from the change too.
She explained: “We’re building an office in in Franklin … I’m actually moving out there. I really loved living in Northern California and I’m so thankful that I grew up there because I think it changed a lot of who I am today, I think I would be different if I was raised in Southern California.
“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.”
Regarding the difficulty of doing business, In-N-Out has rankled with its home state over legal issues in the past—namely, when the business refused to comply with officials and request customers must show proof of vaccination to make purchases.
In-N-Out’s San Francisco restaurant was shut down for a couple of days, with Snyder saying: “There were so many pressures and hoops we were having to jump through. You know: ‘You’ve got to do this, they have to wear a mask, you have to put this plastic thing up between us and out customers.’
“It was really terrible, I look back and I’m like man, maybe we should have just pushed even harder on some of that stuff and dealt with all the legal backlash. But that was definitely where we held the line, like we’re not policing our customers.”
Likewise , last year, the company told local station KTVU it had raised its prices—a move Snyder has historically fought against— to comply with the state’s fast food minimum wage rules and maintain quality.
Commitment to Cali
But In-N-Out’s commitment to California as its western hub remains clear, with Snyder saying over the next five years the company’s two sites in Irvine and Baldwin Park (where its first restaurant opened in 1948) would be consolidated under one roof—the latter site.
The entrepreneur and mom of four explained that her uncle, Rich Snyder, opened the Irvine site when he was leading the business in the 1980s and 90s. However, when he died in a plane crash in 1993 Snyder’s father, Guy, took over running 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.
Snyder explained her dad felt Irvine was not the “roots” of In-N-Out, adding: “He wanted to move everyone back to Baldwin Park so we kind of did a hybrid. He moved a lot of people back to Baldwin Park, but Irvine continued on and continued to grow. And my dad died a handful of years later, so he never got to bring everyone back here and close Irvine.
“So my vision for a long time has been to have these two offices under one roof.”
Expansion plans
In-N-Out has become a pillar of the West Coast lifestyle, and it is beloved by celebrities for a post-Oscar meal. But while its geographical exclusivity has won it visiting customers, the brand has been slowly creeping East.
For example, In-N-Out now has 43 stores in Texas and 13 in Colorado.
It’s unlikely the chain will ever make the decision to expand coast to coast fully, but Snyder teased: “Florida has begged us and we’re still saying no, the East Coast states we’re still saying no.
“We’re able to reach Tennessee from our Texas warehouse—we’re not putting out whole meat facility, we do our own beef, send it to our stores to make patties—we’re not going to have that there. We will have a warehouse … so we’ll be able to deliver from Texas.
“Texas can reach some other states.”