Information AboutWendy's |
For the Australian ice cream chain, see
Wendy's is an international chain of Fast Food Restaurant s founded by Dave Thomas that sells primarily Hamburgers , Chicken Sandwiches , French Fries and beverages. It is headquartered in Dublin, Ohio and owned by the American corporation Wendy's International, Inc. CORPORATE PROFILE History (Canada)]] Wendy's was founded by Dave Thomas in 1969 and was named after Dave's second daughter, Melinda Lou Thomas , then 8 years old, whom her older siblings nicknamed "Wendy" (originally "Winda", stemming from the child's initial difficulty saying her own name), as Thomas stated in his A&E '' Biography '' show. The corporate headquarters is located in Dublin , Ohio . The first Wendy's restaurant was opened in Columbus, Ohio on November 15 , 1969 , and the chain grew rapidly to open over 3,000 restaurants by 1985 . However, by the mid- 1980s some under-performing Wendy's restaurants were closed. By 1986 , Dave Thomas came out of retirement and started doing commercials for Wendy's and helped rebuild the restaurant until his death on January 8 , 2002 . In 1970, Wendy's was the first fast-food chain to offer a drive-through window. Implemented initially at Wendy's second location, the "Pick-Up Window" used a speaker box to allow a customer to drive up, place an order, then drive to the window to complete the order. on East Broad Street in Columbus, now closed]] On February 23 , 2007 , Wendy's announced that the first Wendy's Restaurant in Columbus, Ohio , opened by Dave Thomas in 1969 , would close permanently on March 2 , 2007 .1 The signs were removed from the building the morning after its last day in operation. Reasons cited for this closing included a lack of foot traffic by potential customers, the closure of museums within proximity of the restaurant, cost-prohibitive renovations that would have been needed, and the lack of an adequate parking lot in front of the facility.2 Additionally, there have been several large closures of Wendy's franchise groups in the last few years; most noticeably the closure of its Australian operations and the bankruptcy of the WenAmerica franchise group and closure of its fifty locations in the Midwest region of the US. ]] Facts and figures Wendy's International is the parent company of Wendy's, and is a publicly traded company. With more than 6,700 stores as of December 2006, Wendy's is the number three burger chain, with approximately 12.7% of the market, and the majority of its locations in North America. Wendy's employs more than 57,000 people in its global operations. In fiscal year 2006, the firm had $2.45 billion (USD) in total sales.3 Approximately 77% of Wendy's restaurants are privately owned and operated, or franchised. While Wendy's 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. In response to the 1986 slowdown, Wendy's restructured its cleanliness standards, menu and other operational details to insure that stores met the goals and standards of the parent company so that its franchises were competitive in the market. Key Dates
PRODUCTS The chain is famous for its Square ground beef Hamburgers , which are made to order at the time of purchase. The idea for Wendy's "old fashioned" hamburgers was actually inspired by Dave Thomas' trips to " Kewpee Hamburgers" in his home town of Kalamazoo, Michigan . The Kewpee sold square hamburgers and thick malt shakes, much like the famous restaurant that Thomas eventually founded in Columbus, Ohio in 1969. The Kewpee restaurant still thrives in Lima, Ohio . Wendy's hamburgers are served as a "Junior" (1/8 pound), Classic Single (1/4 pound), Big Bacon Classic (1/4 pound), Classic Double (1/2 pound), and as a Classic Triple (3/4 pound). It is also known for its desserts and chili. Originally Wendy's had only two kinds of Chicken Sandwich es, breaded and grilled. Their spicy chicken sandwich started out as a promotional sandwich but was put on the menu full-time in 1996 due to its popularity and the fact that compared to most promotional sandwiches, it was much simpler to make (it used the same condiments as the standard breaded chicken sandwich). Also the Frescata line of sandwiches went from promotional items to being main menu items. After going through several revisions the Turkey and Swiss and the Ham and Swiss were put on the menu full-time. In 1988, they were the first fast-food chain to create a "99 Cent Value Menu" where (until a couple years ago) everything on that menu was exactly 99 cents. Today however, the Super Value Menu prices can range from $0.99 up to $1.69. Breakfast Wendy's has recently begun a national roll-out of its new breakfast menu in its US and Canadian stores. Wendy's experimented with serving breakfast for a short time in the mid-1980s, but the endeavor was unsuccessful due to several issues45. While approximately 300 Wendy's restaurants in the US and its territories have been serving breakfast since then, Wendy's has not had a company-wide breakfast offering until 2005 when it began testing the current offerings.6 The new breakfast menu should be fully deployed nationwide (US) by late 2008 or early 2009. The new breakfast menu differs slightly from the one featured in the 1980s, and is structured similarly to its lunch/dinner menu with value meals with a choice of sides and a 99¢ value menu. Menu items include several Breakfast Sandwich es served on Biscuits and Kaiser Roll s, breakfast Burritos and Side Order s of Hash Browns , Muffins and Cinnamon Sticks 7. In order to avoid issues from its original breakfast offerings from the 1980s, the new menu is designed for ease of operation, reduced preparation time and lower costs. Superbar In the late 1980s and early 1990s Wendy's also offered the "Superbar" COMPANY NEWS; Wendy's Buffet , an all-you-can-eat buffet. These buffets were reasonably-priced and generally consisted of three "pods": a salad pod, a hot items pod with spaghetti, tacos, burritos, garlic bread, etc., and a dessert and other cold items pod. These buffets, while popular and economical, did not fit into Wendy's fast-food oriented mindset. Most restaurants stopped featuring the buffets around 1998. Menu items
ADVERTISING After successful early growth of the chain, sales flattened as the company struggled to achieve brand differentiation in the highly competitive fast-food market. This situation would turn around in the mid-1980s. Starting on . Wendy's marketing arm engages in '' serving food to the more than 100 construction workers. A recent Wendy's commercial features the tune from the Violent Femmes song " Blister In The Sun ." '' Scrubs '' star Zach Braff can currently be heard in Voiceover in Wendy's newest commercials. {Link without Title} With the launch of the new ad campaign, Wendy's has also unveiled a new slogan, "That's right." Corporate sponsorship Starting in 1994, Wendy's has sponsored the Wendy's High School Heisman Memorial Trophy Award (also known simply as the Wendy's High School Heisman ), named after former college football player and coach John Heisman , to honor high school athletes who also excel in academics and in the community.) Slogans US - Canada
International
COUNTRIES WITH WENDY'S RESTAURANTS When Wendy's opened stores in Australia and Colombia , they did not last long. Nine restaurants were picked up in Victoria by Hungry Jack's in 1986 after the Wendy's Hamburger Chain went bust. The Hungry Jack's Story explains in limited detail about the Wendy's Hamburgers acquisition. Wendy's also opened restaurants in Hong Kong from 1991 to 2000. Wendy's 等先後結業 Further, in the 1980s Wendy's operated some restaurants near military locations throughout Germany , but with the drawdown of the forces, Wendy's retired in the 1990s. There is currently another brand of fast-food restaurants called "Wendy's" in Australia and New Zealand . They are an Ice Cream , Hot Dog s and drinks franchise which is unrelated to the American hamburger chain. (See Wendy's Supa Sundaes ). Both the American and Australian chains' operations coexist in New Zealand. The outlets have different colour schemes. Wendy's restaurants closed in Greece in 2002 after almost 8 years of operation due to heavy competition from other restaurants such as Goody's and McDonald's . It also closed its restaurants in Hungary on 30th June 2002 due to the same reasons. Wendy's also had locations in major cities across the United Kingdom ; the company run locations were sold to McDonald's in 1999. A handful of franchised Wendy's restaurants remained, but eventually all closed. Wendy's also had 18 restaurants in Argentina . All of them were closed in November 2000. Wendy's closes Argentina stores, raises EPS goal bizjournals.com Wendy's takes strategic action in Argentina market prnewswire.co.uk Panama used to have Wendy's in the 80's, until they closed. They returned in the year 2000 with the one located in Paitilla. SEE ALSO
Other hamburger QSR vendors:
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