ravelview / stock.adobe.com
In-N-Out Burger President and owner Lynsi Snyder announced she is moving to Tennessee and establishing a second headquarters there, citing California’s challenges for business owners and families.
“There’s a lot of great things about California, but raising a family is not easy here,” Snyder said July 18 on Allie Beth Stuckey’s “Relatable” podcast. “Doing business is not easy here.”
The company plans to open its new headquarters in Franklin, Tennessee, by 2026, and will phase out its current Irvine office by 2029.
“It will be wonderful having an office out there,” Snyder said. “Growing out there, and being able to have a family.”
She said COVID-era mandates — such as mask and vaccine requirements — created unnecessary burdens that disrupted the company’s business operations.
“There were so many pressures, and just hoops we were having to jump through… they have to wear a mask… put this plastic thing up between us and our customers,” she said. “It was really terrible.”
In-N-Out locations around San Francisco drew national attention during the pandemic for refusing to check customers’ vaccine status — a decision Snyder defended on the podcast.
“That was definitely where we held the line,” she said. “We’re not policing our customers.”
Despite the relocation, Snyder emphasized that the majority of In-N-Out locations will stay in California. She reiterated that the company has no plans to expand to the East Coast, despite frequent requests.
“Number one priority is really keeping the company the same company that my grandparents started,” Snyder said. “We don’t want to be in every state, and we don’t want to ever compromise our values and standards and the cornerstones that my grandparents laid down.”
According to Newsweek, a growing number of companies have moved their headquarters out of California, including Tesla, SpaceX, and Whole Foods.
