Burger King

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Burger King
Type Public (NYSE: BKC)
Founded 1954 in Miami, Florida, USA
Headquarters 5505 Blue Lagoon Drive,
Miami (Miami-Dade County) Florida, USA
Key people John Chidsey, CEO; James McLamore and David Edgerton, Founders
Industry Fast food
Products Fast food (including hamburgers, french fries and milkshakes)
Revenue $1.94 billion USD (2005)
Operating income $151.00 million USD (2005)
Net income $47.00 million USD (2005)
Employees 340,000 (2006)
Parent Burger King Holdings Inc.
Slogan Have It Your Way
Website burgerking.com

Burger King (often abbreviated to BK) is a large international chain of fast food restaurants, predominantly selling burgers, french fries, soft drinks, desserts, and various sandwiches. It is headquartered in Miami, FL. Hungry Jack's is a franchisee of Burger King that owns, operates and franchises over 300 restaurants in Australia.

Contents

Corporate Profile

History

A Burger King restaurant in Redwood City, California
A Burger King restaurant in Redwood City, California

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.

Coincidentally, the McDonald Brothers's milkshake machine was sold to them by Ray Kroc, who later bought the McDonald's restaurant chain from them and oversaw its worldwide expansion.

In 1967, Burger King was bought by Pillsbury, which was bought by Grand Metropolitan PLC of Britain in 1988.

In 1989, the Burger King brand acquired many locations of its major UK rival Wimpy when its parent company bought the 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 trading today (now independent from BK) they no longer have the presence they once did (the market is now dominated by Burger King and the larger McDonald's).

In 1997, Grand Metropolitan merged with Guinness to form a company called Diageo.

On Friday, December 13, 2002, Burger King was purchased from Diageo for $1.5 (US) billion by a private equity group headed by Stanley Foster and the investment firm Texas Pacific Group (TPG)[1]. The company planned to go public within the next two years, though this was delayed until 2006. The new owners, through several new CEOs, revitalized the company; they realized about $367 million of the dividends.

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.

On March 28, 2007, Burger King announced it was changing its policies to start using suppliers who do not confine their animals in crates or cages. The goal for the next few months, Burger King said in The New York Times, is for 2 percent of its eggs to be "cage free," and for 10 percent of its pork to come from farms that allow sows to move around inside pens, rather than being confined to crates; Those percentages would rise as more farmers shift to these methods and more competitively priced supplies become available.[2]

Key Dates

  • 1954: James McLamore and David Edgerton establish Burger King Corporation.[3]
  • 1957: The Whopper is launched.[3]
  • 1959: The company begins to expand through franchising.[3]
  • 1967: Burger King is sold to Pillsbury.[3]
  • 1977: Donald Smith is hired to restructure the firm's franchise system.[3]
  • 1982: Burger King claims its grilled burgers are better than its competitors' (McDonald's and Wendy's) fried burgers.[3]
  • 1989: Grand Metropolitan plc acquires Pillsbury.[3]
  • 1997: The firm launches a $70 million french fry advertising campaign; Grand Metropolitan merges with Guinness to form Diageo plc.[3]
  • 2002: A group of investors led by Texas Pacific Group acquire Burger King.[3]

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 80s, opening the way for San Antonio Burger King locations.

A trademark conflict also arose in Australia; see Hungry Jack's, below.

Facts and figures

Burger King, Seoul, South Korea
Burger King, Seoul, South Korea
Burger King, Camp Liberty, Iraq
Burger King, Camp Liberty, Iraq

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.

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 trademarked by a man running a small takeaway food shop. In consequence, the Australian franchisee, Jack Cowin, was provided by Burger King with a list of possible alternative names that Australian Burger King restaurants could be branded as. These names were derived from pre-existing trademarks already registered by Burger King and Pillsbury (which was, at that time, the parent company of Burger King). Cowin selected the branding Hungry Jack's, echoing his name and sentiment. 'Hungry Jacks' - without the apostrophe - 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 Old Fashioned Hamburgers locations and rebranded them under the Hungry Jack's name.

1996 to 2001

When the existing Australian registered trademark 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 this Burger King proceeded between 1996 and 2003 to open more than seventy outlets in Australia under the Burger King name. These built on their existing stores in 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 outlets.

Legal Proceedings

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, and as a result Burger King Corporation was ordered to pay $AUD 75 million to Hungry Jack's for breach of its franchise agreement[4]. One final attempt was made by Burger King to appeal the decision to the High Court of Australia[5] 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"[citation needed]. 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.[6]

Operational nuances

The slogan "The burgers are better at Hungry Jack's" is well known in Australia.
The slogan "The burgers are better at Hungry Jack's" is well known in Australia.

While Burger King's logo has since changed to the "blue swirl" design, the Hungry Jack's logo is still (as of 2007) 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 favorite, 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 introduced a breakfast menu in late 2005 in three states (Queensland, New South Wales, and Northern Territory). It was subsequently introduced into the other states on October 31st 2006.

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 has seen success with its Kids Club mascots, allowing children to have themed birthday parties at its restaurants, and also with its Kids Club Meals (similar to McDonald's Happy Meal) often using well known collectible toys; see Burger King Kingdom.

Hungry Jack's in Australia has trademarked the new slogan 'Oh Yeah' which has featured in late 2005/early 2006 commercials. Other changes at Hungry Jack's include new fresh salads and deli-style baguettes.

Many larger Hungry Jack's stores in Australia and New Zealand, especially in Perth, Western Australia, where the first Hungry Jack's store opened, have a 1950s/1960s styled theme. Background music from this era is played (sometimes through a 50s style Jukebox), and contemporary pictures and memorabilia are often hung around the stores. In larger sit-down style restaurants the seats and tables are laid out in a 1950s "Diner" style manner.

Products

Burger King predominantly sells hamburgers, various types of chicken sandwiches, french fries, soft drinks, and desserts. In many markets BK offers salads and vegetarian items, wraps and other localized fare. This section provides a brief sampling of items common to BK's company-wide menu, a more complete listing can be found in the Burger King Products article.

Burgers

Whopper Combo with fries and drink
Whopper Combo with fries and drink
  • The BK XXL line of sandwiches is a group of double cheeseburgers made with two 4 ounce burger patties similar to the double whopper sold in North America. The line is only sold in Europe.
  • The BK Crown Jewels line is a group of sandwiches available in New Zealand. They are both beef and grilled chicken sandwiches with higher quality ingredients aimed at the adult market.

Chicken & fish

  • BK has one market-wide chicken sandwich and several "secondary" ones that are offered on a regional basis. The Original Chicken Sandwich is the "main" chicken sandwich sold by BK. It is made with mayonnaise and lettuce and is served on a long sesame seed bun. It is available in all markets, except Australia, under various names.
  • BK offers several variations on its grilled chicken sandwich, none of which are sold company-wide.
  • BK's primary chicken piece product is called Chicken Tenders. They are shaped and breaded pieces of deep-fried, white-meat chicken. They are sold in the majority of its markets, sometimes under a different name: in Australia, Chicken Tenders are marketed as Chicken Strips, and in Germany as King Nuggets.
  • In 2005, BK released a new form of chicken finger foods, called the Chicken Fries. They are sold in 6, 9, and 12 pieces. To promote Super Bowl XV, Burger King offered for a limited time a 36 piece box of Chicken Fries.
  • BK sells a fish sandwich that varies in size, ingredients and breads depending on the market it is sold.

Breakfast

As with most QSR restaurants, Burger King's main breakfast menu products are breakfast sandwiches.

  • The Croissan'Wich is the signature breakfast sandwich in the US. The Croissan'Wich is also a family of breakfast sandwiches in various sizes and configurations. It also sold international markets as the Croissant Sandwich.
  • In most markets, breakfast sandwiches are usually made with a sausage patty, eggs and American cheese. Bacon, ham or other local meats can be substituted for the sausage or the sandwiches can be made without any meat.

Other products

  • Burger King's Kids Club Meals are offered to compete with the popular Happy Meal from McDonald's and the Wendy's Kid's Meal from Wendy's. In most markets three varieties form the Kids Meal base: Chicken Tenders, hamburger, or cheeseburger.

Advertising

Further information: Burger King advertising

Logos

Original "bun halves" logo used until 1994

Revised "bun halves" logo used until 1999

Current "blue swirl" logo

Hungry Jack's "bun halves" logo

Current logo in Arabic. Note that the "swirl" is reversed.

The famous Burger King "bun halves" logo made its debut in 1969 and endured well into the 1990s. As its name implies, it was meant to resemble a hamburger: the logo had two orange semi-circular "buns" surrounding the name, which was the "meat" of the logo. In 1994 BK updated the logo with a graphical tightening, replacing the aging "bulging" font with a smoother font with rounded edges. In addition, all secondary signing, such as roof and directional signs, was also updated with new rounded font.

In 1999, BK again revised its logo. The new Burger King logo is a stylized version of the original "bun halves" logo. BK changed the color the restaurant's name from orange to red lettering, while leaving them sandwiched between two yellow bun halves. The new logo also tilts the bun halves and the font on an axis, has a smaller "bun" motif and wraps the burger with a blue swirl giving it a more circular appearance. Most restaurants did not acquire newer signs with the new logo until 2001. Again all secondary signage was updated with the new logo and type face, and all sign posts were repainted to match the blue coloring of the new swirl from their original black.[7]

The Hungry Jack's logo is based on the original Burger King "bun halves" design, and has been used since Hungry Jack's founding in 1971. HJ currently uses an updated version of the "bun halves" logo, featuring the smoother font used in revised Burger King logo from 1994.


Countries and territories with Burger King restaurants

Countries with Burger King restaurants
Countries with Burger King restaurants

Countries and territories that once had Burger King restaurants

  • Flag of Finland Finland - Burger King operated in Helsinki for a short period in the 1980s
  • Flag of France France - Burger King decided to leave France in 1997 and closed their 39 French outlets in 1998
  • Flag of Japan Japan - First store opened in 1996, restaurants closed in 2001; now the only outlets are on U.S. Air Force and U.S. Marine Corps bases (not a territory of Japan), operated by Burger King headquarters. It was announced that Burger King will open restaurants in Japan again in Summer of 2007, cooperating with Lotte, which already operates the local Lotteria hamburger chain.[8]
  • Flag of Poland Poland - Burger King operated in Poland from 1994 to 2001. In 2001, Burger King decided to withdraw from the Polish market, and all 23 restaurants were sold to AmRest, the operator of both Pizza Hut and KFC franchises for Poland. 6 of the restaurants were closed and 17 rebranded to KFC. However, a new Burger King will be soon opened in the Złote Tarasy shopping mall in Warsaw.
  • Flag of United States Virgin Islands U.S. Virgin Islands - Burger King left both St. Croix and St. Thomas in 1997
  • Flag of Colombia Colombia - Burger King operated in Bogotá for a short period in the 1980s
  • Flag of Ukraine Ukraine - Burger King operated in Kiev for a short period in 2006.

Burger King in pop culture

  • The North American New Wave band Devo used the words of Burger King's "hold the pickles, hold the lettuce" jingle verbatim in their song "Too Much Paranoias", from their debut album Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo (1978).
  • In Robert A. Heinlein's novel Friday, the main characters stop to eat in a 22nd Century BK.
  • In the recent movie Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, Sacha Baron Cohen's character says "Nice, I like" when eating at a BK.
  • Australian comedian Rodney Rude has a famous joke in which the punchline goes: "I have an apartment on top of Hungry Jack's (burger king in Australia), cos its the home of the f***ing whopper."
  • In Pulp Fiction, after a discussion of McDonald's product names in France, Samuel L. Jackson's character asks John Travolta's character what a Whopper is called, to which he replies "I don't know, I didn't go into Burger King."
  • In Back to the Future, the character Dave McFly works at a BK, and a BK is also seen next to Doc's garage.
  • Eminem mentions BK in his song The Real Slim Shady.
  • In Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, John Candy's character remarks that his bottom feels like a "big Whopper" after sitting on a very hot car seat. He goes on to explain that he is afraid to look at his behind, as there may be "griddle marks" on it.
  • In The Beverly Hillbillies movie, Dabney Coleman's character's son sees his future as "grilling frozen cow parts at Burger King" after being threatened with the loss of his inheritance.
  • Burger King is indirectly mentioned in issue #6 of the Sonic X comic book (along with Domino's Pizza) when the main characters are discussing the food available on Earth.
  • Dane Cook mentions a previous job with Burger King, referring to it as the "B.K. Lounge".
  • In the Digital Underground hit from 1989 "The Humpty Dance", faux lead singer "Humpty Hump" (a.k.a. Shok-G) sings how he "Once got busy in a Burger King bathroom"
  • In the 1991 movie King Ralph, the main character, played by John Goodman, and his date stopped at a BK while in London.
  • In The Cosby Show, the father Cliff Huxtable, played by Bill Cosby, tells his son that life isn't Burger King; "Because this isn't Burger King You and you can't have it your way." In the episode, his son Theo was questioning test question styles.
  • In the anime Series SuperGALS a restaurant with the name "Burger Queen" can be seen, a pun on BKs name. There was a chain called Burger Queen in the US, but it has since closed.
  • In an episode of Friends, David Schwimmer's character, Ross, claims to see Matt LeBlanc's Joey Tribbiani at a Burger King
  • In the movie Men In Black II, in MIB HQ you can see a Burger King in the background when they are telling the newly arriving aliens what to do. (Licensed cross promotion with BK).
  • In the April 13, 2005 episode of The Simple Life, stars Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie prepare an ad campaign for BK at CB+B, later and work at a Burger King.[9] (licensed cross-promotion with BK)
  • In the 2005 season of the Apprentice, the teams competed in a contest to design a sandwich for BK to sell. The winners product, "Western Angus Steak Burger", was introduced the day after the episode aired.[10] (licensed cross-promotion with BK)
  • In one episode of Family Guy Peter had a part time job at Burger King parodying the internet meme, "Ding, fries are done" song.
  • in Rob Base and DJ E-Z Rock 1988 hip-hop song It Takes Two, they state: "I like the Whopper, f*ck the Big Mac"

See also

References

  1. ^ "Are private buyouts good for the economy?", By Mark Trumbull ; 13 November 2006, The Christian Science Monitor
  2. ^ "Burger King changes policy on animals - rights groups", Reuters, Mar 28, 2007.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i History of Burger King Corporation Answers.com
  4. ^ [2001] NSWCA 187
  5. ^ [2001] HCATrans S157/1
  6. ^ In Australia, Burger King to become 'Hungry Jack's' South Florida Business Journal, 30 May 2003
  7. ^ Burger King Shares Extensive Transformation Plans press release on BizJornals on Bison.com
  8. ^ Burger King plans Japan launch South Florida Business Journal, 15 December 2006
  9. ^ List of The Simple Life episodes
  10. ^ Trump, king of burgers CNN.com; 21 January 2005

External links

Official websites

North America

Europe

Middle East

South America

Oceania

Other

Other sites


Burger King
v • d • e

People: Brad Blum | Greg Brenneman | David Edgerton | James McLamore

Food: Angus Burger | Big King | BK Stacker | BK Veggie | Rodeo Cheeseburger | Whopper
BK Big Fish | BK Chicken Fries | Chicken Tenders | Original Chicken | TenderCrisp | TenderGrill
Croissan'Wich | Enormous Omelet | Meat'normous

Advertising: Overview | BK Tee Vee | Burger King Kingdom | Coq Roq | I'm not Herb | The Subservient Chicken | Ugoff | The Burger King

Other: Burger King University | Trademark dispute

Annual Revenue: $1.94 billion USD (2005) | Employees: 340,000 (2005) | Stock Symbol: NYSE BKC | Website: http://www.burgerking.com


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