Information AboutBurger King |
|
}
Burger King (), often abbreviated to '''BK''', is the second largest Chain of Hamburger Fast Food restaurants in the world behind industry bellwether McDonald's and the third largest chain overall after McDonald's and Yum! Brands . Founded in 1954 in Miami, Florida , its current headquarters are located in a suburban Miami area that is part of an Unincorporated section of Miami-Dade County . Beginning in 1959, BK began expanding its market by using a Franchise model to drive its expansion plans. Since that time, the company has grown to just over 11,000 stores in 65 nations around the globe1. One of its largest franchisees is '''Hungry Jack's''', which owns, operates and sub-licenses over 300 restaurants in Australia . When the company first started, its Menu consisted predominantly of Hamburger s, French Fries , Soft Drink s, and Dessert s; since that time it has expanded the breadth of its menu by adding various non-beef items like Chicken , fish and veggie Sandwiches ; a breakfast menu; Salads and non-soft drink beverages such as Icee s. Its Advertising has generated a memorable jingle, several well known and parodied Slogans and a successful Internet Meme centered around its mascot, The Burger King . Additionally, over the past several years BK has been cited as contributing to the western Obesity epidemic by introducing products that contain large amounts of Fat , Trans-fat and calories. Like many of its competitors, BK has also been targeted by various animal welfare groups, such as PETA , over the treatment of the animals it uses in the production its products. CORPORATE PROFILE History ]] Burger King's first restaurant, originally called Insta Burger King, was opened on December 4 , 1954 in a suburb of Miami, Florida , USA by James McLamore and David Edgerton , who were both alumni of the Cornell University School Of Hotel Administration . McLamore had visited the hamburger stand belonging to Dick And Mac McDonald in San Bernardino, California ; being able to sense potential in their innovative Assembly Line -based production system, he decided to create a version of his own. By 1959, BK had grown to five regional stores in and around the metropolitan Miami area. About this time, Messrs McLamore and Edgerton decided to expand BK nationally by using a franchising system that had become a popular method for expansion due to its low capital cost for the parent company. They formed Burger King Corporation as the parent and began selling territorial franchise licenses to private owners across the US. History of Burger King Corporation Answers.com In in 1971 with Hungry Jack's and the first European restaurant located in Madrid, Spain , in 1975 . Beginning in 1982 , BK and its franchisees began operating stores in several East Asian countries, including Japan , Taiwan , Singapore and Korea . Due to high competition, many of the Japanese locations closed by the end of 2001. BK reentered the Japanese market in mid-20072. BKs Central and South American operation started in Mexico in Date . Since the time that Pillsbury bought Burger King, BK has been the object of a series of failed and successful acquisitions and divestitures. In 1973, Chart House, at over 350 restaurants and one of BK's largest franchise groups, attempted to purchase the chain from Pillsbury for $100 million ( USD ). When Chart House's bid failed, its owners, Billy and Jimmy Trotter, suggested that Pillsbury and Chart House spin off their respective Burger King holdings and merge the two entities into a separate company; an offer Pillsbury also declined. After the failed attempts to acquire BK, the relationship between Chart House and the Trotters began to sour; in 1979 BK successfully sued Chart House for improperly acquiring locations in Boston and Houston. In 1984 , Pillsbury purchased Chart House's successor, DiversiFoods, for $390 million ( USD )3 after a separate, independent $525 million management-backed leveraged buy-out of the company failed4. BK, and former corporate siblings, Bennigan's , Steak And Ale , Godfather's Pizza (part of the DiversiFoods acquisition5), Quick Wok and Häagen Dazs ice cream shops, remained under the Pillsbury corporate umbrella until Pillsbury divested its restaurant holdings in 1989 and sold Burger King to British Alcoholic Beverage manufacturer and distributer Grand Metropolitan PLC. In 1989 , under the ownership of Grand Met, Burger King acquired many locations of its major UK rival Wimpy when the parent company bought the Wimpy's brand from its previous owner United Biscuits and re-branded them as Burger King, giving it an even greater presence in that country. While other "Wimpy" locations are still in operation presently, they are now independent from BK and no longer have the presence they once did. In 1997 , Grand Metropolitan merged with Guinness to form a company called Diageo . Diageo maintained ownership of BKC until 2001 when Diageo decided to focus solely on their beverage products and put BK up for sale. In 2002 , a Troika of Private Equity firms led by Texas Pacific Group with associates Bain Capital and Goldman Sachs Capital Partners agreed to purchase BK from Diageo for $1.5 billion ( USD ), with the sale becoming complete in December of that year6. The new owners, through several new CEOs, have moved to revitalize and reorganize the company, the first major move was to re-name the BK parent as Burger King Brands. Although the investment group initially planned to take BK public within the two years of the acquisition, this was delayed until 2006. On February 1 , 2006 , CEO Greg Brenneman announced TPG's plans to turn Burger King into a publicly traded company by issuing an Initial Public Offering . On February 16, the company announced it had filed its registration for the IPO with the Securities And Exchange Commission . On May 18 , 2006 , Burger King began trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol BKC. The TPGroup has continued BK's international expansion by announcing plans to open new franchised locations in Eastern Europe 78, 180 stores in the Africa and the Middle East 910, Brazil , and over 250 stores in new Asian territories such as Macao and China by the end of 201211. Key dates
Trademark disputes As it expanded in the United States, Burger King found that smaller operations had previously been using the name. One such restaurant in Mattoon, Illinois negotiated a settlement that forbids the chain from opening locations within 20 miles (32 km). See Burger King (Mattoon, Illinois) . In a trademark settlement with San Antonio local chain Whopper Burger, Burger King was not allowed to open locations within two counties of the city. The chain was ultimately bought out in the mid 1980s, opening the way for San Antonio Burger King locations. A trademark conflict also arose in Australia; see Hungry Jack's , below. Facts and figures , South Korea ]] ]] Burger King Holdings is the parent company of Burger King, in the US it operates under the Burger King Brands title while internationally it operates under the Burger King Corporation banner. It is a publicly traded company with investment firms of Texas Pacific Group, Bain Capital, and Goldman Sachs each owning about 25% of the company. BKC 2006 Annual Report Historically, Burger King has been the second largest burger chain in North America, behind McDonald's . However, Burger King's revenues and market share have been declining. In the early 2000s, Burger King fell to a near tie for second place with Wendy's . Burger King has been closing under-performing stores and changing its marketing strategy in an attempt to turn its fortunes around. In fiscal year 2002, the firm had US $ 11.3 billion in total sales. As of 2006, there are more than 11,220 Burger King outlets in 61 countries. 66% of the restaurants are in the United States. The company has more than 340,000 employees who serve approximately 11.4 million customers daily. Almost 90% of Burger King restaurants are privately owned and operated, or Franchised . While Burger King Corporation sets standards for exterior store appearance, food quality and menu, individual owners have control over hours of operations, interior decor, pricing and staff uniforms and wages. For example, Magic Johnson 's company Magic Johnson Enterprises purchased 30 Burger King stores on June 7 , 2004 . The stores were redecorated with a sports memorabilia theme. These locations officially reopened on December 3 , 2004 . Burger King has a longstanding presence at U.S. Army and U.S. Air Force installations worldwide, dating back to the 1980s under a contract with Army And Air Force Exchange Service . Today, while other chains such as Taco Bell , Popeye's and Subway have a presence on military bases, virtually every major Army and Air Force installation hosts a BK restaurant. Many Burger King outlets, even inside cities, require customers to operate a motor vehicle to purchase food during late evening hours. Burger King is one of the few companies that does not accept communication via email. HUNGRY JACK'S PROFILE When Burger King decided to expand its operations into Australia , it found that its business name was already Trademark ed by a man running a small takeaway food shop. As a result, Burger King provided the Australian franchisee, Jack Cowin , with a list of possible alternative names that the Australian Burger King restaurants could be branded as. The names were derived from pre-existing trademarks already registered by Burger King and Pillsbury (at that time, the parent company of Burger King). Cowin selected the branding Hungry Jack's, echoing his name and sentiment. ' Hungry Jack ' - without the 'apostrophe S' - was actually a Pillsbury brand, being used in the US to market Pancake (flapjack) mixture. Accordingly, the first Australian franchise of the Burger King Corporation, established in Perth in 1971, was branded as Hungry Jack's. In 1986, Hungry Jack's purchased 11 failing Australian Wendy's Hamburgers locations and rebranded them under the Hungry Jack's name. 1996 to 2001: Legal Proceedings When the existing registered trademark in Australia for Burger King lapsed in 1996, the American parent company wanted Cowin to change the Hungry Jack's outlets over to the Burger King name. Cowin resisted the change but despite his opposition, Burger King proceeded to open more than seventy outlets in Australia under the Burger King name between 1996 and 2003. These were built upon existing franchise locations at international airports – the international territory apparently outside the Cowin licensing deal. In some cases, the new Burger King outlets were located very close to existing Hungry Jack's. As a result of Burger King's actions, Hungry Jacks Pty. Ltd. began legal proceedings in Australia against the Burger King Corporation citing violation of the master franchising agreement. In 2001, the case was finally resolved in favour of Hungry Jack's in a case that eventually included the Australian operating arm of Royal Dutch Shell . As a result, the Burger King Corporation was ordered to pay 75 million to Hungry Jack's for breach of its franchise agreement.12 One final attempt was made by Burger King to appeal the decision to the High Court Of Australia 13; however, this appeal was dismissed. 2002 to the present day In 2002, Burger King Australia exited the country and sold a 51% share of its Australian restaurants to TPF, the company that operates Burger King in New Zealand. In an attempt to improve rapidly falling sales, TPF re-branded its Burger King restaurants as Hungry Jack's in late 2003 believing that the Hungry Jack's name with its 30 year history was the stronger brand. A market research survey conducted six months after the re-branding showed that Burger King had been the preferred brand, and that the words most often chosen by respondents in the survey to describe Hungry Jack's were "slow" and "dated". In mid 2005, TPF decided to exit the Australian market and sold its 51% share of the former Burger King sites to Hungry Jack's Pty Ltd, the company operated by Jack Cowin. In Australia, Burger King to become 'Hungry Jack's' South Florida Business Journal, 30 May 2003 Operational nuances "The burgers are better at Hungry Jack's" is well known in Australia .]]While Burger King's logo has since changed to the "blue crescent" design, the Hungry Jack's logo is still based on the previous Burger King logo, employing the simpler bun-and-filling motif. Hungry Jack's sells the usual range of burgers but also offers an Australian speciality: the Aussie Burger. This burger is based on the traditional Australian Fish And Chips shop favourite, including fried egg, bacon, onion, and Beetroot , with the traditional meat, lettuce, and tomato. Hungry Jack's locations are required to follow any menu changes made by Burger King. Hungry Jack's breakfast menu, introduced in late 2005 in three states ( Queensland , New South Wales , and Northern Territory ) and the other states on October 31 2006 , bears little resemblance to Burger King's US breakfast menu. The main breakfast sandwich is served on either an English Muffin , Baguette roll or as a wrap ( Breakfast Burrito ) instead of a Croissant ; the Hash Browns are served as patties as opposed to Tater Tots and they feature Pancakes .1415 The only trademarked sandwich products that HJ sells is the Whopper and the Ocean Catch sandwich. All other products go by a generic naming such as hamburger or chicken nuggets. Hungry Jack's retains strong links with Perth, with the city's first team in the Australian Football League , the West Coast Eagles , having been sponsored by Hungry Jack's since their entry into the league in 1987. Hungry Jack's Kids Club mascots are unique to the Australian franchisee, as opposed to other international locations that use one the two existing kid's mascots, " while BK places it after. Hungry Jack's in Australia has trademarked the new slogan, 'Oh Yeah', which was featured in commercials that ran late 2005/early 2006. Other changes at Hungry Jack's include new fresh salads and deli-style baguettes. Many Hungry Jack's restaurant locations are designed around a 1950s/1960s styled theme. Background music from this era may be played within the restaurant (occasionally through a '50s era styled Jukebox) with associated contemporary pictures and memorabilia utilized as part of the interior decor. In the larger sit-down style restaurants, the seats and tables are laid out in a 1950s Diner style. PRODUCTS See Also: Burger King products As part of its reorganization, BK introduced several new products to its menu, including several new or revamped chicken products, a new salad line and its BK Joe brand of coffee. Some of the new products, including its Enormous Omelet Sandwich line1617 and the BK Stacker line18, brought negative attention due the large portion size, amounts of unhealthy fats and trans-fats. ADVERTISING See Also: Burger King advertising In January 2003 , BK hired the Miami -based advertising firm of Crispin Porter + Bogusky (CP+B) to resuscitate the moribund advertising account of BK19. As one of CP+B new advertising strategies, they revived The Burger King character used during BKs 1970s / 1980s Burger King Kingdom advertising campaign as a Caricature d variation now simply called "the King". Additionally, CP+B created a series of Viral web-based advertisements to compliment the various television and print promotional campaigns on sites such as MySpace 20 and various BK corporate pages2122. These viral tactics coupled several other new advertisement campaigns, in addition to the new product introductions, drew considerable attention, both positive23 and negative24, to BK and helped TPG and its partners realize about $367 million in Dividend s. LOGOS |