Arby's

Arby's Restaurant Group, Inc.

Company type	Wholly owned subsidiary
Industry	Restaurants
Founded	July 23, 1964
Founder	Forrest and Leroy Raffel
Headquarters	Sandy Springs, Georgia , USA
Number of locations	3,600 (approx.)
Area served	USA and Canada
Key people	Thomas A. Garrett, President/CEO Michael I. Lippert, COO John Dasis, CFO
Products	Fast food, including: Roast beef · sandwiches
Revenue	US$ 1,263.7 million (2007)
Operating income	US$ 9.4 million (2007)
Net income	US$ 16.1 million (2007)
Number of employees	25,000 (2005)
Parent	Wendy's/Arby's Group, Inc
Website	www.arbys.com

Arby's is a fast food restaurant chain in the United States and Canada that is a wholly owned subsidiary of Wendy's/Arby's Group, Inc. It is primarily known for selling roast beef sandwiches, chicken sandwiches, curly fries, and popcorn chicken. The company's target market attempts to be more adult-oriented than other fast food restaurants. The Arby's menu also includes appetizers, salads, Market Fresh (deli-style) sandwiches, wraps, and submarine sandwiches.

They have 3,688 Arby’s restaurants in the United States and Canada. As of December 30, 2007, there were 1,106 company-owned Arby’s restaurants and 2,582 Arby’s restaurants owned by 462 franchisees. Of the 2,582 franchisee-owned restaurants, 2,458 operated within the United States and 124 operated outside the United States, principally in Canada. It owns the franchise T.J. Cinnamons that as of December 2007, has 243 locations with 225 multi-branded with company stores. They also have six multi branded Pasta Connections. They are currently only franchising the T.J. Cinnamons brand.

History

Arby's was founded by Forrest and Leroy Raffel in Ohio in 1964, who were determined to own a fast food franchise based on a food other than hamburgers. The brothers wanted to use the preferred name of "Big Tex", but that name was already being used by an Akron businessman. They eventually decided on the Arby's moniker, based on R.B., the initials of Raffel Brothers, thus Arby's, LLC, was born. By coincidence, R.B. can also be short for roast beef, the company's main product, a point which was used when the backronym "America's Roast Beef, Yes Sir" was used as an advertising campaign in the 1980s.

After a long interim between successes, Arby's capital had been quite diminished, so a completely new franchise system had to be devised. The Raffel brothers opened the first new restaurant in Boardman, Ohio (located just outside of Youngstown), on July 23, 1964, where they initially served only roast beef sandwiches, potato chips and drinks. A year later, the first Arby's licensee opened a restaurant in Akron, Ohio. The famous Arby's 'hat' was designed by the original signmakers, Peskin Sign Co (they continue to make signs for Wendy's/Arby's Group). Expansion to other states began in 1968, beginning in Pittsburgh (the closest large out-of-state market to Youngstown) and Detroit.

During the 1970s the expansion of Arby's grew at a rate of 50 stores per year. During this time they created and perfected several menu items including the beef ‘n cheddar, jamocha Shakes, curly fries and Arby’s signature sauces, Arby’s BBQ sauce and horsey sauce. By 1981 they added chicken along with opening their store number 1000. They became the first in the fast food industry to offer a complete Lite Menu in 1991 with several sandwiches and salads under 300 calories and ninety four percent fat free. A further change occurred in the stores that banned smoking in 1994.

In 1993 Arby's was purchased by Triarc companies. This resulted in further changes with the market fresh lineup being introduced in 2001 that included deli style sandwiches and salads. A further expansion of the line occurred with wraps introduced in 2003. This was further expanded in 2007 with the toasted sub line.

On May 31, 2005, Triarc announced that it was purchasing RTM and would move their headquarters from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to Sandy Springs, Georgia. Later that year, Triarc officially bought out RTM. After the buyout the restaurants that were owned by RTM and Triarc were reorganized under the name ARG (Arby's Restaurant Group). Most of the primary leadership of RTM was retained by ARG in either their former role, or as consultants.

Arby's is currently franchised by Wendy's/Arby's Group, who also franchises T.J. Cinnamons and Pasta Connection and once owned Royal Crown Cola (better known as R.C. Cola), which Arby's sold into the mid-1990s. At the time, this made Arby's one of the only major restaurant chains to sell a soft drink product other than Pepsi or Coca-Cola, with Pepsi itself at the time being mostly relegated to the three restaurants then-owned by Pepsi (KFC, Taco Bell, and Pizza Hut), Subway, and a small handful of sit-down restaurants.

On April 24th 2008, Wendy's announced that it would sell itself to Triarc. According to the New York Times, the stock swap will go for $2.3 billion. Triarc plans to change its corporate name to include the Wendy's name. The headquarters of both Wendy's in Dublin and Arby's in Atlanta will stay in place with Wendy's/Arby's Group, Inc as the new corporate name and headquarters also left in Atlanta.

Arby's franchise in Midland, MI

Arby's franchise on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles, California

Triarc and its Arby's franchise subsidiary, Arby's Restaurant Group, are the largest owners of Arby's franchises. With the 2007 Annual Report, ARG plans on opening 50 new stores for themselves on top of the over 300 franchise locations that are currently opening, proposed, or under development by franchises.

Arby's location inside Kilcawley Center on the campus of Youngstown State University in Youngstown, Ohio, Arby's home market.

While the restaurant has not been based in the Youngstown area for many years, the chain still has a major presence in the area, including a location on the campus of Youngstown State University as well as numerous sponsorship deals and events within the area.

The nearby Pittsburgh area is also a major market for Arby's, where for decades was the only overlapping area with Northeastern fast-food chain Roy Rogers. Until Hardee's unsuccessful purchase of Roy Rogers in 1990, Arby's had a very minimal presence in the Baltimore/Washington, D.C. area due to Roy Rogers fans supposedly preferring the taste of Roy Roger's roast beef over Arby's. However, since Roy Rogers' rapid decline after the Hardee's takeover (the two restaurants were separated when their parent company at the time, Imasco, sold Hardee's to Carl's Jr. in 1997), Arby's has since expanded their presence in these markets.

Denver and parts of the Southern United States are also major Arby's territories. The Bailey Company(TBC) of Golden, Colorado, is an Arby's franchiser in Colorado, Idaho and Wyoming.

Advertising

The chain adopted an experimental mascot in the early 2000s, in addition to the cowboy hat, which was an anthropomorphic oven mitt, who appeared on the company's television commercials and print advertisements. He was voiced by actor Tom Arnold.

Arby's is currently sponsoring Matt Kenseth, a NASCAR driver, who was also featured in a television commercial for the company. In accordance with this sponsorship, Arby's has promised to give away free medium curly fries on the Monday following any of his race wins. Customers need only bring in an official race result from a newspaper or website.

Arby's currently uses the slogan "I'm thinking Arby's." In April 2008, it launched a new advertising campaign that features the Arby's Rescue Brigade, a group of Arby's enthusiasts whose sole mission is to "save the world from ordinary fast food." The Brigade, which is led by Captain John Maddox, travels around the country in a Rescue Mobile to save anyone who is eating bland, unsatisfying fast food.

In conjunction with the campaign, Arby's launched a video contest to recruit a new member to join the Brigade. Prizes included a starring role as the newest Brigade member in an upcoming Arby's commercial and free Arby's food for a year. The contest ran on its website from April 28 through June 30, 2008.

Products

An Arby's location in Moncton, Canada

In February 2006, Arby's became the first national fast food chain to claim to not use any artificial additives in its chicken products; along with this claim came an advertising campaign which criticized Wendy's, McDonald's and Burger King for their use of additives such as water, salt and phosphates in their chicken products.

In November 2006, Arby's announced that they were eliminating all trans-fats from their menu, to be implemented by May 2007, being the first major fast-food restaurant to do so. However, as of December 2007, Arby's online nutritional guide shows that small amounts of trans-fat can still be found in some of their products.

In early 2006, Arby's Restaurant Group (ARG) signed a contract with Pepsi to be their exclusive soft drink provider. When franchisees' contracts expire with Coca-Cola, they will be required to switch to Pepsi-Cola, the lone exception being the aforementioned Arby's located at YSU because of the University having its own separate contract with Coca-Cola for other university purposes, particularly the athletic department.

Sandwiches

• Roast beef sandwiches - available in Junior, Regular, Medium, and Large; Beef 'n Cheddar; Bacon Beef 'n Cheddar; Arby's Melt; the Super; and the Arby-Q.
• Chicken Sandwiches - Chicken Breast Fillet, Chicken Bacon n' Swiss, and Chicken Cordon Bleu; all with either crispy or grilled chicken, along with popcorn chicken shakers.
• Market Fresh sandwiches - Ham & Swiss, Turkey & Swiss, Roast Beef & Swiss, Turkey Ranch & Bacon, Chicken Salad, BLT, Turkey Reuben, and Corned Beef Reuben. All of these can be placed on Bread or Tortilla Wrap (some wraps are shown as an option on the menu, while others are by request only).
• Toasted subs - Turkey Bacon Club, Philly Beef, French Dip & Swiss, and Classic Italian.

Other products

• Side orders - curly fries, mozzarella sticks, popcorn chicken, potato bites, with stores given a choice of Jalapeño Bites or onion petals.
• Salads - Martha's Vineyard, Chicken Club, and Santa Fe.
• Kids Meals - Jr Roast Beef, Mini Ham & Swiss, Mini Turkey & Swiss, and Popcorn Chicken.
• Desserts - Apple and cherry Turnovers, or the limited edition chocolate turnovers along with optional Chocolate chip cookies.

Breakfast

• Biscuit, Croissant, and Sourdough in either ham, sausage, or bacon with additions of Swiss or American cheese and an egg patty. Along with this is the Wrap that has the choice of the meat. Some restaurants also offer Toast Stix, Blueberry Muffins, Sausage Gravy. The biscuit also has an option of chicken breast for a meat.

Beverages

PepsiCo is the primary provider of beverages: Pepsi, Diet Pepsi, Mountain Dew, Dr Pepper, Sierra Mist, Fresh Brewed Iced Tea, and Tropicana Sugar Free Lemonade. At some stores they also offer Diet Mountain Dew, Lipton Raspberry Ice Tea, Diet Dr Pepper, SOBE Energy Drink and Wild Cherry Pepsi among several other optional choices.

• Milkshakes - vanilla, chocolate, jamocha, and strawberry shakes, although some stores will replace the strawberry with a promotional shake such as the current Orange Cream Swirl shake.

Options in some regions also include Homestyle Fries, Potato Cakes, Pepper Jack Melt, and TJ Cinnamons. Potato Cakes have recently been placed as a local store marketing option which is identical to the breakfast lineup.

Trademarks

Like many companies they own several trademarks for their products. These include Arby’s, Arby’s Market Fresh, Market Fresh, Horsey Sauce and Sidekickers.

Legal Issues

In November 2002, Access Now filed a lawsuit against RTM, then a franchise of TriArc, that some 800 of their stores did comply with ADA. The lawsuit had no liability damages except for lawyer fees. In August 2006, the court accepted the settlement between RTM and Access Now. The result is every year 100 of the RTM stores are retrofitted to comply with ADA. Accordingly it is estimated that about $1.2 million will be spent to retrofit those stores each year.

Foundation

As with many companies Arby's created a foundation to support the communities they provide service in 1986. The foundation is the Arby's Foundation. It selected the national Big Brother, Big Sisters of America as its chief charity. Part of the foundations work involves the national Arby's Charity Tour which has raised $21 million at amateur golf tournaments since 1996. This work along with the 2,500 stores donations make the foundation over $25 million to donate to Big Brother, Big Sister.

External links

• Arby's official website
• Arby's breakfast at Review the World
• Arby's history
• Triarc (Arby's Franchiser) website
• GAD, Grant Avenue Development, an Arby's Franchiser of several Arby's in NY, PA and VA.
• US Beef Corporation - Largest Arby's Franchisee in the world.
• Nutritional information for the items on Arby's menu