Wienerwald (restaurant)
Wienerwald (German for "Vienna Woods") is a franchise chain of fast-food restaurants with stores in Germany, Turkey, and Romania. In Austria, a detached spin out company by the same name operates casual dining restaurants with a similar menu.
Founded in 1955 by Friedrich Jahn in Munich, it rapidly grew up to Europe's largest chain of fast-food restaurants. In more than 1600 restaurants throughout Europe in 1978, they mainly sold rotisserie chicken and other chicken products. In 1978, Wienerwald purchased the 273-restaurant Lum's chain from former Kentucky Fried Chicken owner John Y. Brown, Jr..[1] The chain's inability to market themselves as a provider of good tasting chicken, (rather than overcoming the US misconception that "Wienerwald" was a hot dog chain), plus their huge growth in 1978 brought enormous debts. Many of the restaurants in the USA and Europe were forced to close; Wienerwald declared bankrutpcy in 1982, divesting itself of its 880 restaurants in the United States.[2]
As of 2005[update] there were only 63 restaurants left in Germany and Austria.
[edit] References
- ^ Tagliabue, John (1981-07-18). "Wienerwald's U.S. Challenge". The New York Times: p. 29.
- ^ "Wienerwald Chain Will Be Cut Back". The New York Times. 1982-06-17. http://www.nytimes.com/1982/06/17/business/wienerwald-chain-will-be-cut-back.html?scp=1&sq=%22Wienerwald%20Chain%20Will%20Be%20Cut%20Back%22&st=cse.
[edit] External links
- Wienerwald - German company's English-language site
- Wienerwald - Austrian company's site (German language only)
- Wienerwald - Romanian company's site (Romanian language only)
- Wienerwald - Turkish company's site (Turkish language only)
 |
This restaurant-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
 |
This Austria-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
 |
This European corporation or company article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
