Burger King

Burger King (NYSE: BKC), often abbreviated to BK, is a global chain of hamburger fast food restaurants. It was founded in 1954 in Miami, Florida by James McLamore and David Edgerton, 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.

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 TPG Capital, L.P., Bain Capital, and Goldman Sachs each owning about 25% of the company. At the end of its fiscal year 2006, Burger King reported that there are more than 11,220 outlets in 61 countries; 66% of the restaurants are in the United States and 90% of the restaurants privately owned and operated. The company has more than 37,000 employees who serve approximately 11.4 million customers daily.

The Burger King menu has evolved from a simple offering of burgers, fries, sodas and milkshakes in 1954 to a larger, more diverse set of offerings that includes several variations of chicken, fish, salads and breakfast. The Whopper was the first major addition to the menu by Mr. McLamore in 1957, a sandwich that has since become Burger King's signature product. Not all introductions have had the success of the Whopper; BK has introduced many products which failed to catch hold in the marketplace. Some products that have failed in the US have seen success in foreign markets, where BK has also tailored its menu for regional tastes .

Burger King's "Golden Age" of advertising was during the 1970s when the introduced its mascot the Magical Burger King, a memorable jingle, and several well known and parodied slogans. Beginning in the early 1980s, its advertising began to lose focus; a series of less successful ad campaigns created by various agencies continued for the next two decades. In 2003, Burger King set about resuscitating its moribund advertising with the hiring of the Miami-based advertising agency of Crispin Porter + Bogusky (CP+B). CP+B completely reorganized Burger King's advertising with a series of new ads centering around a resuscitated Magical Burger King character.

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 by James McLamore and David Edgerton who were both alumni of the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration. McLamore had visited the original McDonald's hamburger stand belonging to Dick and Mac McDonald in San Bernardino, California; sensing 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, 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.

A Burger King restaurant in Redwood City, California

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 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 did not have a large international presence. This situation changed shortly after the acquisition when Pillsbury opened its first international restaurant in Canada in 1969. Other international locations followed soon after: Oceania in 1971 with Hungry Jack's and in Europe in 1975 with a restaurant in Madrid, Spain. Beginning in 1982, BK and its franchisees began operating stores in several East Asian countries, including Japan, Taiwan, Singapore and Korea. Due to high competition, many of the Japanese locations closed by the end of 2001. BK reentered the Japanese market in mid-2007. BK's Central and South American operations began in Mexico in the late 1970s.

Since the time that Pillsbury bought Burger King, BK has been the object of a series of failed and successful acquisitions and divestitures. In 1973, Chart House, owner of 350 BK restaurants at the time and one of BK's largest franchise groups, attempted to purchase the chain from Pillsbury for $100 million (USD). When Chart House's bid failed, its owners, Billy and Jimmy Trotter, suggested that Pillsbury and Chart House spin off their respective Burger King holdings and merge the two entities into a separate company, an offer Pillsbury also declined. After the failed attempts to acquire BK, the relationship with Chart House and the Trotters began to sour; in 1979 BK successfully sued Chart House for improperly acquiring locations in Boston and Houston. In 1984, Pillsbury purchased Chart House's successor DiversiFoods for $390 million (USD) after a separate, independent $525 million DiversiFoods 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 are now independent from BK and no longer have the presence they once did. In 1997, Grand Metropolitan merged with Guinness to form a company called Diageo. Diageo maintained ownership of BKC until 2001 when Diageo decided to focus solely on their beverage products and divest itself of the chain.

By the time of the sale, Burger King's revenues and market share had declined significantly, Burger King had fallen to a near tie for second place with rival Wendy's in the US market for hamburger chain restaurants. For many years leading into the early 2000s Burger King and its various owners plus many of its larger franchises closed many under-performing stores. Several of its largest franchises entered bankruptcy due to the issues surrounding the performance of the brand.

In 2002, a troika of private equity firms led by Texas Pacific Group with associates Bain Capital and Goldman Sachs Capital Partners agreed to purchase BK from Diageo for $1.5 billion (USD), with the sale becoming complete in December of that year. 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. 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 (IPO). 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 generated $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 franchise 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.

Today, 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 fourth largest chain overall after Yum! Brands (34,000 locations), McDonald's and Subway (28,400 locations).

Key dates

• 1954: James McLamore and David Edgerton establish Burger King Corporation.
• 1957: The Whopper is launched.
• 1958: BK releases its first TV advertisement.
• 1959: The company begins to expand through franchising.
• 1967: Burger King is sold to Pillsbury.
• 1977: Donald Smith is hired to restructure the firm's franchise system.
• 1982: Burger King claims its burgers taste better than (McDonald's and Wendy's) fried burgers.
• 1989: Grand Metropolitan plc acquires Pillsbury.
• 1997: The firm launches a $70 million french fry advertising campaign; Grand Metropolitan merges with Guinness to form Diageo plc.
• 2002: A group of investors led by Texas Pacific Group acquire Burger King.
• 2006: BKC, with the same stock symbol, goes public in an IPO.

Hungry Jack's

File:Hungry Jacks Logo.png

Hungry Jack's current logo.

Main article: Hungry Jack's

Hungry Jack's (sometimes colloquially abbreviated to HJ's) 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 Hungry Jack's had violated the conditions of the 1991 renewed franchise agreement in regard 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 its assets to TPF, its New Zealand franchise group. TPF subsequently renamed the remaining BK locations to Hungry Jack's, operating them that way for four more years when it chose to exit Australia and sell its operations to Cowin's company.

Hungry Jack's currently owns and operates or sub-licenses over 300 restaurants in Australia. No Australian restaurants now operate under the Burger King name.

Controversies, disputes and legal issues

As with other multi-national corporations, Burger King has had its share of controversies and legal issues over the course of its existence. Issues have included trademark disputes, controversies with animal rights groups, health issues, packaging issues and labor laws. Many of these issues have helped Burker King grow as a socially responsible corporation, while others may have hurt them in some markets.

Trademark disputes

As the company grew, it encountered several issues in regard to trademarks, the most famous two incidents occurred with the similarly named Burger King in Mattoon, Illinois and now defunct take-out (take-away) Burger King restaurant in Queensland, Australia.

The Mattoon trademark dispute is probably the most important of the disputes because of the effect it had setting legal precedent in regard to the Lanham Act in the US under the case Burger King of Florida, Inc. v. Hoots (1968). 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, claiming that their trademark gave them exclusive rights to the name in Illinois sued BK in the state, and later federal, courts. 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.

Further information: Burger King (Mattoon, Illinois)

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 Queensland. As a result, Burger King provided the Australian franchisee, Jack Cowin, with a list of possible alternative names that the Australian Burger King restaurants could be branded as. The names were derived from pre-existing trademarks already registered by Burger King and its then corporate parent Pillsbury. Cowin selected the "Hungry Jack" brand name, one of Pillsbury's US pancake mixture products, and slightly changing the name to a possessive form by adding an apostrophe 's' thus forming the new name Hungry Jack's. Accordingly, the first Australian franchise of the Burger King Corporation, established in Perth in 1971, was branded as Hungry Jack's.

Controversies

Nutrition

Burger King in San Francisco with vegan protesters

Further information: [[:Burger King products]]

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 manufacture of its ingredients. In a concession to these groups, BK will be switching suppliers for several of its raw animal products, e.g. eggs and pork-based products, to those who use cage free production methods.

Several groups have argued that BK has 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 and 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 of 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 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. In a press statement, BKC announced that it will be taking the following steps in regard to its children's advertising:

In addition, Burger King Corp. will:

• 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 on its Web site
• Promote healthy lifestyles and healthy dietary choices in 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.

Islam

An issue of a religious nature arose in the UK when BK introduced a new prepackaged ice cream product; the label of the product included a silhouette of the ice cream that when rotated on its side bore a resemblance to the Islamic inscription for God. Several local Muslim groups pointed out the issue of the possible interpretation and Burger King voluntarily recalled the product and reissued it with a new label. Another issue that arose with the Islamic community was over 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 argued that BKC licensing of the store helped legitimize the settlement. 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 issued statements that denounced 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

Labor issues and disputes have arisen in various parts of the world, primarily over wages. In South Florida, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, (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 is a larger purchaser, BKC is not 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 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. The other charitable organization is the McLamore Foundation, also a non-profit, 501(c)(3) corporation that provides scholarships to students in the US and its territories. Additionally, there is 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.

Products

Main article: Burger King products

When the company began, its menu consisted predominantly of hamburgers, french fries, soft drinks, and desserts. Beginning with the Whopper sandwich in 1957, BK has expanded the breadth of its menu by adding various non-beef items like chicken, fish, 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 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 quarter 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 modified some of its core menu products, adding variations on products like the Whopper so that there are many "standard" sizes and 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.

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 Value 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 a more adult palate and demographic. Again, not all these products have met corporate sales expectations.

Advertising

Main article: Burger King advertising

BK has had history of hits and misses in regard 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. Starting in the 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 with the hiring of the Miami-based advertising agency of Crispin Porter + Bogusky (abbreviated as CP+B). 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 ad campaigns, coupled with other new campaigns and 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

Evolution of the Burger King logo
File:Sitting king logo.png Vintage Burger King "sitting king" logo (1957–1968)	File:Original Burger King logo.png Original "bun halves" logo (1969–1994)	File:Burger king logo 2.png Revised "bun halves" logo (1994–2000)	Current "blue crescent" logo (2000–present)

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 did not 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.

International variations
File:Hungry Jack's logo.png Hungry Jack's revised and current "bun halves" logo	File:Burger King Arabic logo.png Current logo in Arabic. Note that the logo is read from right to left.

The Hungry Jack's logo is based on the original Burger King "bun halves" design. HJ currently uses an updated version of the "bun halves" logo, featuring the smoother font used in the revised Burger King logo from 1994. Currently, the only region that BK uses non-Latin text is the Middle East. In those Arabic speaking countries the logo is reversed and uses Arabic characters; otherwise the logo is a mirror of the "blue crescent" logo used in the west.

Global locations

File:Burger King Seoul South Korea.jpg

Ordering area of a Burger King in Seoul, South Korea

AAFES Burger King, Camp Liberty, Iraq

Burger King, Warsaw, Poland

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.

Countries with Burger King restaurants
Countries currently with Burger King locations:
Afghanistan located at various military installations and run by Army Airforce Exchange Services Andorra Argentina Aruba Austria Australia (known as Hungry Jack's) Bahamas Bahrain Bolivia Bosnia & Herzegovina Brazil Bulgaria Canada Cayman Islands Chile People's Republic of China Costa Rica Cyprus Denmark (Only in the Copenhagen area) Dominican Republic Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Faroe Islands Georgia	Germany Guatemala Guyana Honduras Hong Kong Hungary Iceland India Indonesia Iraq located at various military installations and run by Army Airforce Exchange Services Ireland Israel Italy Jamaica Japan Jordan Kazakhstan Kuwait Lebanon Malaysia Malta Mexico Netherlands Netherlands Antilles includes Curaçao and Sint Maarten	New Zealand Nicaragua Norway Panama Paraguay Peru Philippines Poland Portugal Qatar Republic of Korea Saudi Arabia Singapore 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 United States includes Guam and Puerto Rico 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. Oman - Burger King decided to leave Oman in 2001

See also

Other hamburger QSR vendors:

• Carl's Jr.
• Hardee's
• Jack in the Box
• McDonald's (largest competitor)
• Sonic
• Wendy's (nearest competitor)

External links

Other sites

• Burger King & Food Safety
• Burger King News
• How many calories does Burger King food have?
• Yahoo! Burger King Corporation Company Profile at Yahoo! Finance
• Burger King Corporation Company Profile at Hoovers.com
• Article on BK Kids Club no ProgressiveBoink.com