A&W Restaurants
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| A&W Restaurants | |
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| Type of Company | Subsidiary of Yum! Brands, Inc. |
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| Founded | 1922 |
| Headquarters | Louisville, Kentucky |
| Industry | Restaurant |
| Products | Hot dogs, root beer |
| Website | awrestaurants.com |
A&W All-American Food is a chain of fast-food restaurants distinguished by their draft root beer and root beer floats, made on the premises from concentrate and served in large glass mugs. It is the oldest fast food franchise company in the United States. They serve a typical fast food menu of hamburgers, hot dogs and french fries. Many are 1950s-themed and sponsor classic car cruises. A number of them are drive-in restaurants with carhops. The company name is from the initials of the two founders. The chain is currently owned by Yum! Brands.
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[edit] History
A&W began in 1922 in Lodi, California when Roy Allen took on partnership with Frank Wright to help him with his root beer business he had started in 1919. They branded their product A&W root beer after their last names. Two years later Allen bought out Wright and began franchising his product. His profits came from a small franchise fee and concentrate sales. There was no set food menu for franchises until 1978.
A&W may have been the first drive-in and by 1960 they had 2000 stores. In 1971 a beverage division was started, supplying bottled A&W products to grocery stores. The soft drinks sold under this brand are root beer and cream soda, made by Dr Pepper/Seven Up, Inc.
In the United States and southeast Asia, A&W is currently a Yum! Brands, Inc. company. Most A&W locations that have opened in the U.S. in recent years have been co-branded with Yum!'s fish and chips chain Long John Silver's, or with Kentucky Fried Chicken.
[edit] International
[edit] Canada
Main article: A&W (Canada)
The Canadian chain of A&W restaurants is owned and operated by a separate company, A&W Food Services of Canada Inc. It does not have any connection to the American A&W chain.
[edit] Okinawa, Japan
First opened in 1963, A&W drive-in restaurants were the first fast-food franchise to appear in Japan. Currently, they are found only in Okinawa, the southernmost prefecture of Japan, where it remains very popular. It has become something of a regional specialty among Japanese tourists who visit Okinawa.
[edit] Australia
A&W operates in Australia. Until 2003, Tasmania did not have any A&W stores. However, a trial run was tried, with A&W being combined with KFC stores, offering both store menus in the one location. The trial ended in late 2004, with the A&W branches closing down. In March 2005, A&W opened a joint-branch with Long John Silvers in Kings Park, New South Wales. This was a huge success and has raised the prospect of opening more such branches.
[edit] Bangladesh
A&W opened its first outlet in Bangladesh on the 15th of December 2004. This 165-seat outlet is located in Gulshan 1, Dhaka. The food served is 100% halal and is very popular with the local youth population with root beer being the driving force of the large number of sales. A&W Bangladesh serves an "All you can eat offer" during the Muslim holy month of Ramzan.
[edit] Malaysia
A&W's first store in Asia Pacific opened at Kuala Lumpur's Batu Road in 1963. It was also the first fast food corporation from the US to set foot in the country. However, A&W had a declining business season in 1997-2000. The most famous A&W outlet in Malaysia is undoubtedly the Drive-In outlet at Jalan Utara, Petaling Jaya, a satellite city of Kuala Lumpur. It opened in the mid 1970s and was also a favourite filming location for Malaysian movies during the 1970s and early 1980s.In Penang, A&W had an outlet at KOMTAR and Penang International Airport and has since been closed down, but new stores have been opened at malls around Penang.
To date, several more A&W outlets have been opened in Malaysia, mostly in shopping malls. The largest A&W mall outlet is located in Suria KLCC, the most prominent shopping complex in Malaysia. An A&W outlet opened for a number of years in Kota Kinabalu, but was closed down in 2004.
[edit] Pakistan
A&W opened at Zamzama in Karachi was the first store opened in South Asia.
[edit] Singapore
The first A&W store opened at Dunearn Road in Singapore in the year 1966 as the first fast food restaurant from America in the country. The chain expanded in the later years including one at Singapore Zoo which closed down in 1999. The chain's Singapore operations dwindled in the 2000s, and by 2002 it had 7 outlets around the island. A&W finally closed in 2003.
[edit] United Kingdom
There are a few A&W outlets appearing in the United Kingdom, all of which share retail space with KFC. These include outlets in Derby, Ashton-Under-Lyne and Glasgow.
[edit] Germany
Like in the UK, there were a few KFC restaurants with A&W outlets attached. Today (2006) just one branch is left, located in Berlin.
[edit] United Arab Emirates
There are quite a few A&W outlets in UAE. The very first outlet was opened over 10 years ago in 1996 in a large shopping mall called Bur Juman Center, located in Dubai. After a while, more started popping up, mostly in Westernized shopping malls and areas. Business in these outlets seemed to be doing well. However, it appears they have stopped opening any new outlets. Because of this, only a few A&W outlets exist in the UAE. Many say this is due to the growing Anti-American sentiment in the country during recent times.
[edit] See also
- A&W Root Beer - the root beer distributed at supermarkets
- A&W Chili Dog Recipe
[edit] External links
- A&W American website
- A&W Canada website
- A&W Malaysia website
- A&W Okinawa, Japan website
- A&W Beverages
| Yum! Brands, Inc. |
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Pizza Hut | Taco Bell | KFC | A&W Restaurants | Long John Silver's | WingStreet | East Dawning (东方既白) |
