Burger King Totally Explained

} Burger King, often abbreviated to BK, is a global chain of hamburger fast food restaurants. It was founded in 1954 in Miami, Florida, and has since used a franchise model to expand to just over 11,200 stores in 65 nations around the globe. One of its largest franchisees is Hungry Jack's, which owns, operates and sub-licenses over 300 restaurants in Australia.

Corporate profile

History

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. By 1959, BK had grown to five regional stores in and around the metropolitan Miami area. About this time, Messrs McLamore and Edgerton decided to expand BK nationally by using a franchising system that had become a popular method for expansion due to its low capital cost for the parent company. They formed Burger King Corporation as the parent and began selling territorial franchise licenses to private owners across the US.
   In 1967, after eight years of private operation, the Pillsbury Company acquired Burger King and its parent company Burger King Corporation. At the time of the purchase, BK had grown to 274 different restaurants in the United States. While BK began its foray in to locations outside of the continental United States in 1963 with a store in San Juan, Puerto Rico, it didn't have a large international presence. This situation changed shortly after the acquisition when Pillsbury began BK's global expansion with its first international restaurant in Canada in 1969. Other international locations followed soon after: Oceania in 1971 with Hungry Jack's and the first European restaurant located in Madrid, Spain, in 1975. Beginning in 1982, BK and its franchisees began operating stores in several East Asian countries, including Japan, Taiwan, Singapore and Korea. BKs Central and South American operation started in Mexico in date. after a separate, independent $525 million management-backed leveraged buy-out of the company failed.
   BK, and former corporate siblings, Bennigan's, Steak and Ale, Godfather's Pizza (part of the DiversiFoods acquisition), Quik Wok and Häagen Dazs ice cream shops, remained under the Pillsbury corporate umbrella until Pillsbury divested its restaurant holdings in 1989 and sold Burger King to British alcoholic beverage manufacturer and distributor Grand Metropolitan PLC. In 1989, under the ownership of Grand Met, Burger King acquired many locations of its major UK rival Wimpy when the parent company bought the Wimpy's 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 in operation presently, they're now independent from BK and no longer have the presence they once did. The new owners, through several new CEOs, have moved to revitalize and reorganize the company, the first major move was to re-name the BK parent as Burger King Brands. Although the investment group initially planned to take BK public within the two years of the acquisition, this was delayed until 2006. 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 and generating $425 million in revenue, the largest IPO of a US-based restaurant chain on record.
   The TPGroup has continued BK's international expansion by announcing plans to open new franchised locations in Eastern Europe, 180 stores in the Africa and the Middle East, Brazil, and over 250 stores in new Asian territories such as Macao and China by the end of 2012.

Key dates

1954: James McLamore and David Edgerton establish Burger King Corporation.

1959: The company begins to expand through franchising. Its headquarters are located in a suburban Miami area that's part of an unincorporated section of Miami-Dade County.
Burger King is the second largest chain of hamburger fast food restaurants in the world behind industry bellwether McDonald's (31,000 locations) and the third largest chain overall after Yum! Brands (34,000 locations) and McDonald's. 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. Gene and Betty Hoots owned an ice cream shop in the city of Mattoon; due to the success of the store, in 1957 they expanded it with an additional shop next to the original location. In keeping with the name of the ice cream shop, Frigid Queen, they named their burger stand Burger King and registered their trademark with the state of Illinois in 1959.
Burger King Corporation and its franchises began opening locations in Illinois in 1961, and by 1967 had over twenty locations in areas in the state. The Hootses, believing that their trademark gave them exclusive rights to the name in Illinois sued state and later federal court. The decision of the federal court was that the BKC federal trademark, received in 1963, took precedence over the Hootses' state trademark; The Hootses were granted exclusive rights to the Burger King trade mark in 20 mile (32 km) of their original location in Mattoon.

Controversies

Like many of its competitors, BK has also been targeted by various animal welfare groups, such as PETA, over the treatment of the animals it uses in the production its products. In a concession to these groups, BK will be switching suppliers for several of its raw animal products, for example eggs and pork-based products, to those who use cage free production methods.
   Several groups have cited BK as having contributed to the western obesity epidemic by introducing products that contain large amounts of fat, trans-fat and calories. In recent years, BK has begun introducing several large, over-sized products including its European BK XXL line, Enormous Omelet Sandwich line and the BK Stacker line. These products, and others like them, have brought international scorn and negative attention due the large portion size, amounts of unhealthy fats and trans-fats. Many groups, including the American Heart Association, the Center for Science in the Public Interest and the Spanish government, have accused BK and other fast food restaurant chains for failing to provide healthier alternatives and contribution the ongoing obesity epidemic in the West.
   In a partial response, Burger King announced that it was joining the The Council of Better Business Bureaus Children's Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative. The program is a voluntary self-regulation program designed to shift advertising messages aimed at children so that they encourage healthier eating habits and lifestyles. As part of this new initiative, BKC has stated that it'll restrict advertising to children under 12 that uses third-party licensed characters to Kids Meals that meet its Nutrition Guidelines, refrain from advertising in elementary schools and from product placement in media primarily aimed at children under 12, promote Kids Meals that meet its Nutrition Guidelines as set forth on its web site and promote healthy lifestyles and healthy dietary choices in its advertising. The new Kid's Meal line will include several new products, including broiled Chicken Tenders, apple "fries", french cut apples served in a fry box, and organic apple sauce. According to a statement by BKC the new Kid's Club meals will contain no more than 560 calories per meal, less than 30 percent of calories from fat, less than 10 percent of calories from saturated fat, no added trans fats and no more than 10 percent of calories from added sugars.
   Serious issues with the Islamic community have arisen over cultural sensitivities and an Israeli franchise opening stores in the Occupied territories. When the Israeli BK franchisee Rikamor, Ltd. opened a store in the West Bank settlement of Ma'aleh Adumim, many Islamic groups became enraged with BKC. BKC quickly pulled the franchise license for that location and had the store shuttered saying that Rikamor, Ltd. had violated its contract by opening the location in the West Bank. Several American-based Jewish groups decried the decision as kowtowing to threats of boycotts by Islamic groups. In a statement issued by BK Corporation, Burger King stated that it "made this decision purely on a commercial basis and in the best interests of thousands of people who depend on the Burger King reputation for their livelihood."
   Labor issues and disputes have arisen in various parts of the world, primarily over wages. In South Florida, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, abbreviated CIW, has organized protests against Burger King and other QSR chains in response to the dismissal of the group's demands for increased pay raise of 1¢ per pound for tomato pickers in the region. Burger King's response was that while it's a larger purchaser, BKC isn't responsible for the pay rates of the workers of its suppliers as wages disputes are the province of the said producer. BKC also offered employment for any dissatisfied CIW members and scholarships through its Have it Your Way Foundation for family members of CIW affiliated workers.

Charitable contributions and services

Burger King has several of its own in-house national charitable organizations and programs; the first is the Have It Your Way Foundation, a U.S.-based non-profit, 501(c)(3) corporation with multiple focuses on hunger alleviation, disease prevention and community education through scholarship programs at colleges in the US. and the McLamore Foundation, also a non-profit, 501(c)(3) corporation that provides scholarships to students in the US and its territories. Additionally, there's an optional literacy program that partners individual restaurants with community schools in the US.
On the local level, BK supports several regional charitable organizations covering several various causes. In the Boston region BK has affiliated itself with the Boston Red Sox Jimmy Fund, a charity that supports juvenile cancer research at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. In the Pittsburgh region it contributes to the Burger King Cancer Caring Center, a support organization for the patients, families and friends of cancer patients.

Hungry Jack's

Hungry Jack's (abbreviated to HJ) is the exclusive Australian franchisee of Burger King Corporation. Its parent company is Hungry Jack's Pty Ltd which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Competitive Foods Australia, a privately held company owned by Jack Cowin.
   The Hungry Jack's branding results from a small takeaway shop in Queensland having registered the Australian trademark for the name Burger King. Thus, BK was forced to change the name when it decided to open stores in the country - the only time this has happened in its corporate history. Hungry Jack was the name of a Pillsbury product (the then-parent of Burger King) being used in the US to market pancake (flapjack) mixture, and Cowin presumably chose that branding as a reflection of his own name. The first Hungry Jack's, with the possessive apostrophe "s", opened in Perth in 1971.
   Claiming that HJ had violated the conditions of the 1991 renewed franchise agreement in regards to the expansion of the chain, Burger King Corporation, in partnership with Royal Dutch Shell, began to open its own stores in Australia in 1996. In a counter-claim that BKC had breached the conditions of their franchise agreement, Cowin sued and won. As a result of the verdict, BKC withdrew its presence from the country, and in 2001 sold all of its assets to TPF, its New Zealand franchise group. TPF subsequently renamed the remaining BK locations to HJ, operating them for four more years when it chose to exit Australia and sell its operations to Cowin's company.
   HJ currently owns and operates or sub-licenses over 300 restaurants in Australia. No Australian stores now operate under the Burger King name.

Products

When the company first began, its menu consisted predominantly of hamburgers, french fries, soft drinks, and desserts. Beginning with the the Whopper sandwich in 1957, BK has expanded the breadth of its menu by adding various non-beef items like chicken, fish and vegetarian offerings such as salads and meatless sandwiches; a breakfast menu; and non-soft drink beverages such as Icees, juices and bottled waters. Additionally, as the company expanded both inside and outside the US, it introduced localized versions of its products that conform to regional tastes and cultural or religious beliefs. To generate additional sales, BK will occasionally introduce limited time offers (LTO) of special versions of its products or bring out completely new products intended for either long or short term sales. Not all of these products and services have been successful, in 1994 Burger King introduced limited table service and special dinner platters; the concept failed to generate interest and was discontinued.
   In 1957, BK added its signature item, the Whopper. This 1/4 pound hamburger was created by Burger King founders James McLamore and David Edgerton as a way to differentiate BK from other burger outlets at the time. The sandwich became famous enough that BK eventually adopted the motto "Home of the Whopper."
   By 1979, BK had significantly expanded the breadth of its menu with many non-hamburger sandwiches including chicken, fish, desserts and breakfast products. Like all QSR outlets, BK has also modified its core menu with variants on its sandwiches, LTO products and items that cater to specific dietary needs. In 1985, BK again expanded its menu offerings by adding new products such as French Toast Sticks, the Croissan'wich and BK Chicken Tenders. BK has also 'tinkered' with its menu, modifying items like the Whopper into many "standard" varieties.
   In 1997 Burger King launched their new french fry line, which featured a clear coating made from a potato-based starch to 7,400 U.S. locations. Burger King also rolled out a large U.S. advertising campaign to advertise the new french fries. The fries were in research and development for over two years and already had been available in several markets. These new french fries are still in use today.
   In 1998, US BK added a 99¢ (USD) Great Tastes menu to better compete with QSR competitor, Wendy's. This value menu featured seven products: Whopper Jr., 5 piece Chicken Tenders, a bacon cheeseburger, medium sized french fries, medium soft drink, medium onion rings and small shake. In 2002, BK renamed it the 99¢ (USD) Value Menu revamped it to include a grilled sourdough burger, a bacon cheeseburger, small sized french fries and onion rings, small sized soft drinks, childs size shakes, chili, tacos, 5 piece Chicken Tenders, baked potatoes and a side garden salad. Many of the items have since been discontinued, modified or relegated to a regional menu option. In 2006, the Value menu was again renamed, to the BK Values Menu, with products ranging from 99¢ to $1.50 (USD).
   As part of its 2003 reorganization, BK introduced several new products to its menu, including several new or revamped chicken products, a new salad line and its BK Joe brand of coffee. Some of the new products, including its Enormous Omelet Sandwich line and the BK Stacker line, brought negative attention due the large portion size, amounts of unhealthy fats and trans-fats.
   As with other fast food companies, BK has recently begun introducing products that feature higher quality ingredients like whole chicken breast, Angus beef, natural cheeses such as cheddar and pepper jack, and other menu fair that attempts to appeal to the more adult palate and demographic

Advertising

BK has had history of hits and misses in regards to its advertising: During the 1970s, BK introduced a memorable jingle, several well known and parodied slogans such as Have it your way and It takes two hands to hold a Whopper. However, starting early 1980s and running through approximately 2002 BK engaged a series of ad agencies that produced many less than memorable slogans and programs, including its biggest advertising flop Where's Herb?. The 1990s saw a highly successful tie-in campaign with Disney's animated films, including the Academy Award nominated Beauty & the Beast and Academy Award winning Toy Story.
Beginning in 2003, BK began resuscitating its moribund advertising As one of CP+B new advertising strategies, they revived the Burger King character used during BKs 1970s/1980s Burger King Kingdom advertising campaign as a caricatured variation now simply called "the King". Additionally, CP+B created a series of viral web-based advertisements to compliment the various television and print promotional campaigns on sites such as MySpace and various BK corporate pages. The farcical nature of the Burger King centered advertisements inspired an internet meme where the King is photoshopped into unusual situations that are either comical or menacing, many times followed with the phrase Where is your God now?. These viral campaigns coupled several other new advertisement campaignsand the new product introductions, drew considerable positive and negative attention to BK and helped TPG and its partners realize about $367 million in dividends.

Logos

|Original logo used for Burger King with the "King" on top of the burger Image:Original Burger King logo.png|Original "bun halves" logo used from 1969 to 1994 Image:Burger_king_logo_2.png‎|Revised "bun halves" logo used from 1994 to 1999 Image:Burger King Logo.svg|Current "blue crescent" used since 1999 Image:Hungry Jack's logo.png|Hungry Jack's revised and current "bun halves" logo Image:Burger King Arabic logo.png|Current logo in Arabic. Note that the logo is read from right to left. 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 of 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 crescent whipping around the buns giving it a more circular appearance. Most restaurants didn't acquire newer signs with the new logo, menus, and drive-thru ordering speakers 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 crescent from their original black.
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 with Burger King restaurants


Countries currently with Burger Kings:
Afghanistan U.S. military base Andorra Argentina Aruba Austria Australia (known as Hungry Jack's) Bahamas Bahrain locations are Halal Bolivia Bosnia & Herzegovina Located in Novi Grad and Sarajevo Brazil Bulgaria Canada Cayman Islands Chile People's Republic of China first restaurant opened early 2005 in Shanghai Costa Rica Cyprus Denmark Dominican Republic Ecuador Egypt only one location, first in Africa El Salvador first country in Central America with a Burger King Faroe Islands Georgia first restaurant opened late in 2006 in Tbilisi	Germany Guam Guatemala Guyana Honduras Hong Kong Now has two new restaurants after closing all restaurants in 1990 Hungary Iceland India Extremely rare, only 2. Indonesia Iraq located at various military installations and run by Army Airforce Exchange Services Ireland- majority are found within Dublin and others exist in Cork, Limerick, Dundalk, Newbridge, Athlone, Tullamore Israel some of restaurants are kosher Italy Jamaica Japan Re-opened in June 2007 Jordan Kazakhstan Kuwait Lebanon Malaysia locations are Halal Malta Mexico Netherlands Netherlands Antilles includes Curaçao and Sint Maarten	New Zealand Nicaragua Norway Panama Paraguay Peru Philippines Poland Portugal Puerto Rico Qatar (locations are Halal) Republic of Korea Saudi Arabia locations are Halal Singapore locations are Halal Serbia (UN administered province of Kosovo) located on Camp Bondsteel Spain St. Lucia Sweden Switzerland Republic of China (Taiwan) Thailand Trinidad and Tobago Turkey United Arab Emirates United Kingdom- Majority of Burger Kings exist in London, Birmingham, Cardiff, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Belfast, Sheffield and Glasgow United States Uruguay Venezuela
Countries formerly with Burger King restaurants:
Finland - Burger King operated in Helsinki for a short period in 1980s France - Burger King decided to leave France in 1997 and closed their 39 French outlets in 1998 Greece - Burger King operated in Greece for a short period in the early 1990s U.S. Virgin Islands - Burger King left both St. Croix and St. Thomas in 1997 Colombia - Burger King operated in Bogotá for a short period in 1980s Ukraine - Burger King operated in Kiev for a short period in 2006.

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