| Type | Public (NASDAQ: TAST) |
|---|---|
| Industry | Restaurants (SIC code 5812) |
| Founded | 1960[1] |
| Founder(s) | Herbert N. Slotnik[1] |
| Headquarters | Syracuse, New York, U.S. |
| Number of locations | 554 O&O; 30 franchised[2] |
| Area served | United States, Puerto Rico, Ecuador[2] |
| Key people | Alan Vituli |
| Products | Burger King (franchisee) Taco Cabana (owner) Pollo Tropical (owner)[2] |
| Revenue | US$816.1 million (Fiscal year 2009)[3] |
| Operating income | US$20 million (FY 2009)[3] |
| Net income | US$21.8 million (FY 2009)[3] |
| Total assets | US$440 million[3] |
| Employees | over 10,000[1] |
| Website | www.carrols.com |
Carrols Restaurant Group is a fast-food restaurant operator. It is the largest Burger King franchisee in the world;[2] Carrols owns and operates about 330 Burger King locations across 12 U.S. states.[1]
The company also owns the restaurant chains Pollo Tropical and Taco Cabana. About 30 of these locations are franchised; the remaining are owned and operated by Carrols itself.[2] It originally owned a restaurant chain named Carrols; the U.S. locations were closed in the mid-1970s; current Carrols restaurants only exist in southern Finland.
Carrols corporate offices are located in Syracuse, New York. Most of its operations are under the name Carrols Corporation.
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An offshoot of the Tastee-Freeze company, Carrols was named for the daughter of Tastee-Freez co-owner Leo Marantz. Carol Marantz Marx was the daughter-in-law of Gummo Marx.[4][5]
Herb Slotnick bought the franchise rights for the New York area and started opening restaurants in the Syracuse, New York area in the early 1960s. They expanded over the years throughout New York state.
During the 1960s, a yellow slug character served as Carrols' first mascot, replaced in 1974 by a young blonde boy wearing a tweed suit and a Fedora hat.
Most Carrols restaurant locations were converted to Burger King franchises in 1975 (less profitable stores were shuttered). The original menu of Carrols, and the Carrols brand, then went overseas to Finland, Sweden, Estonia, Latvia and Russia.
In February 2011 the company announced it was divesting itself of its two Spanish themed chains, Taco Cabana and Pollo Tropical, in a spin off aimed at helping the company focus on its core Burger King operations.[6]
During the 1970s, Carrols tried their hand at serving fried chicken (like that served at KFC); their attempt was advertised as "Carrols Crunchy Country Chicken—I can't say it, and I work here". Carrols also formed an agreement with Good Humor to sell several of its ice cream novelty bars.
The flagship sandwich in Carrols' original menu was the Club Burger. Like the Big Mac at McDonald's, it also had two all-beef patties, a special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles and onions, served on a sesame-seeded, triple-decker hamburger bun. The Club Burger also had a tomato slice, and its special sauce is known as Crisbo Royale Sauce. In the early/mid-1970s, there was no tomato slice, and the sauce was a French dressing variant called Royal Dressing. The fish sandwich at Carrols was the Sea Filet. They also rolled out the Brute, their own version of Burger King's Whopper. Carrols' Roast Beef Hero piled heated slices of deli roast beef inside a bolillio roll with a dripping of beef broth. Carrols' Toasted Cheese (aka TC) had two yellow American cheese slices criss-crossing on both the top and bottom sides of a hamburger bun, which was pressed with a spatula as it cooked on the grill. The TC sold for ten cents in 1970.
Beginning in the early 1970s, Carrols owned and operated the CinemaNational movie theater chain, until their sale to Mid-States Theaters and USA Cinemas in the early and mid 1980s. The theaters were concentrated in central New York State, but there were locations as far away as Wisconsin, Idaho and California. The chain consisted mostly of large single-screen locations that had been purchased from companies like Kallet, Hallmark and Dipson Theaters, along with new locations that were built by Slotnick. CinemaNational also built some triple-screen multiplex locations in sites like the Penn-Can Mall in Cicero, New York, and the Fayetteville Mall in Fayetteville.
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