A&W Restaurants

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A&W Restaurants
Type	Subsidiary of Yum! Brands, Inc.
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. The aforementioned items are made on the premises from concentrate and served in tall, frosted-glass mugs. It is the oldest fast food franchise company in the United States, serving a typical fast food menu of hamburgers and french fries, as well as hot dogs. A number of them are drive-in restaurants with carhops. The company name was taken from the initials of the two founders, Roy Allen and Frank Wright. The chain is currently owned by Yum! Brands.

Contents 1 History 2 International 2.1 Canada 2.2 Okinawa, Japan 2.3 Australia 2.4 Bangladesh 2.5 Malaysia 2.6 Pakistan 2.7 Singapore 2.8 United Kingdom 2.9 Germany 2.10 Egypt 2.11 United Arab Emirates 2.12 Thailand 2.13 Philippines 3 Trivia 4 See also 5 External links

[edit] History

A&W began in 1922 in Lodi, California, when Roy Allen took on partnership with Frank Wright to help him with the 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.

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 Taco Bell or Kentucky Fried Chicken.

In 1989, A&W made an agreement with Minnesota-based chain Carousel Snack Bars to convert that chain's 200 locations (mostly kiosks in shopping malls) to "A&W Hot Dogs & More".^[1][2] Some A&W Hot Dogs & More locations are still in operation today.

[edit] International

[edit] Canada

Main article: A&W (Canada)

The Canadian chain of A&W restaurants is owned and operated by a separate company. It is called A&W Food Services of Canada Inc. While originally part of the American operation, the Canadian company no longer has any corporate connection to the American chain.

The first A&W drive-in restaurant in Canada opened on Portage Avenue in Winnipeg in 1956.

[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 favorite 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 Ramadan.

[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 favorite 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 Ashton-Under-Lyne and Glasgow.

[edit] Germany

Like in the UK, there were a few KFC restaurants with A&W outlets attached. As of 2006, there is just one branch, located in Berlin.

[edit] Egypt

During the year of 2006, all A&W outlets closed. Before that, there were at least 3 outlets in Egypt;
El Korba, Heliopolis
Heliopolis Club, El Sherouk City
Green Plaza, Alexandria

[edit] United Arab Emirates

There are quite a few A&W outlets in UAE.^{[citation needed]} The very first outlet was opened in 1996 at a large shopping mall called Bur Juman Centre, 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.

[edit] Thailand

There are a few A&W outlets appearing in Thailand.

[edit] Philippines

There are a few A&W outlets in the Philippines, all are located in Manila.

[edit] Trivia

Hotel entrepreneur J. Willard Marriott began his business career as franchiser of numerous A&W Root Beer stands in Washington D.C.

[edit] See also

• A&W Root Beer - the root beer distributed at supermarkets

[edit] External links

• A&W American website
• A&W Canada website
• A&W Malaysia website
• A&W Okinawa, Japan website
• A&W Beverages