Everyone knows about In-N-Out's "secret" menu, but the burger joint's biggest enigma is the family that owns them.
"We don't want to be in the spotlight," said Lynsi Snyder-Ellingson, the company's 33-year old president, in a rare interview with CBS This Morning. "We want do what we do best, and that's serve some good burgers to our customers."
The occasion for the appearance was the opening of the first In-N-Out north of California, in Medford, Oregon earlier this month. The Oregon store is the 304th in the chain, all of which are owned by the Snyder family, and have been so since the first store was opened by Snyder-Ellingson's grandparents in 1948. Although they have since expanded well beyond their Southern California roots, the chain has remained in the West, confined to six states. The reason? No store can be more than 600 miles away from one of their three distribution centers, since their burger patties are never frozen.
"It's about the quality, the friendliness, and the cleanliness," said Snyder-Ellingson. "We keep it simple." Hell yeah.
Despite their low-key approach, the company is valued at up to $1 billion, and Snyder-Ellingson will be set to inherit it all once she turns 35. That's a lot of money! Would she ever sell, or go public? "No way," she says. Especially since her father and uncle, who both previously ran the company, tragically died in the 90s, she feels bound by blood to keep things in the family.
"The fact that they're not here," she explains. "I have a strong tie to keep this the way they would want it."
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