Checkers (fast food)

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Checkers, Inc.
Rally's, Inc.
Checkers Drive-In Restaurants, Inc.
Type Private
Founded 1986 (Checkers)
1985 (Rally's)
1999 (Merger of Checkers and Rally's)
Headquarters Tampa, Florida
Industry Fast Food
Products Burgers-Fries-Colas
Parent Taxi Holdings Corp.
Website [1]

Checkers Drive-In Restaurants, Inc. is the largest chain of double drive-thru restaurants in the United States and parent company of both Checkers and Rally's concepts. In June 2006, the Company went private through a merger with Taxi Holdings Corp., an affiliate of Wellspring Capital Management LLC, a private equity firm.

Currently, the company operates more than 815 Checkers and Rally's restaurants in 28 states and the District of Columbia. They both specialize in hamburgers, hot dogs, French fries, and milkshakes.

Contents

[edit] History

Originally separate companies serving different geographic areas, Checkers and Rally's Hamburgers, Inc. merged in August 1999. The joint company houses its headquarters in Tampa, Florida. Checkers was founded in 1986 in Mobile, Alabama, and went public in 1991. Rally's was founded in Louisville, Kentucky in 1985, with its first location in Jeffersonville, Indiana. From 1996 to 1999, Rally's was owned by CKE Restaurants, parent company of Carl's Jr. and Hardee's.

[edit] Image

Rally's near New Orleans, LA

Checkers restaurants follow a retro theme with abundant use of chrome flashing, neon tube lighting, and black and white checkered tiling. To reinforce recognizability and minimize costs, Checkers predominantly uses prefabricated restaurant units that consist of a main food preparation building and twin drive-thru windows. As a facet of the unique facility design, many stores do not have inside seating (one exception is the Rally's in Lexington, Kentucky; another is the Rally's near the state capital building in Charleston, WV, the Checkers in Islip, New York, Sayreville, New Jersey, Sarasota, Florida, and Tavares, Florida which also does not have a second window.); however, outside dining facilities, such as patio tables with umbrellas, are present. One must either use the drive-in or order at the walk-up window at the front of the restaurant.

Checkers and Rally's had similar concepts, being almost exclusively drive-thru with very little seating. After the merger, Rally's began redesigning its restaurants to follow the Checkers look. Today, with the exception of a different name on the sign, Checkers and Rally's restaurants look nearly identical.

[edit] Menu

The menus of the two restaurants are nearly identical, differing in that Checkers' menu includes additional hamburgers (including the original Champ hamburger). Over time, the Checkers menu grew in size to include chicken and fish sandwiches, chicken strips, and a wider selection of hamburgers.


[edit] Advertising and promotions

The slogan of the restaurant from in 1999-2000 was "High performance Human Fuel" and was then changed and used from 2000-2007 to "You gotta eat!" Although they still say that slogan in the "Big Buford" commercial, the slogan was replaced.

In September 2007, ML Rogers, LLC., a Madison Ave. advertising agency, won the advertising rights for Checkers Restaurants. They completely restructured the advertising campaign. Among one of the many changes is their new slogan, "Little Place, BIG TASTE," which can been seen in commercials airing since October 2007.[1]. ML Rogers, LLC. also does advertising for The Scotts Company and is owned by President and Executive Creative Director Michael Rogers, who was previously employed by DDB Needham Worldwide, Inc., and the Wolf Group.

[edit] Slogan

  • 1997-1999 "Fresh. Because we just made it."[2]
  • 1999-2000 "High performance Human Fuel"
  • 2000-2007 "You gotta eat!"
  • 2008- "Little Place, BIG TASTE"

[edit] References

  1. ^ New Advertising Campaign.
  2. ^ "Checkers' CEO Drives Double Successes: FirstQuarter Profits and Increased Same Store Sales." All Business. 1 May 1998. 18 May 2008.

[edit] External links