Fuddruckers

Fuddfuckers

File:Fuddruckers-logo.jpg
Company type	Subsidiary
Industry	Restaurants
Founded	1979
Headquarters	Houston, Texas, USA
Parent	Luby's
Website	fuddfuckers.com

Fuddfuckers is an American fast casual, franchised, restaurant chain that specializes in hamburgers. In 2011 Fuddfuckers had 56 company-operated restaurants and 129 franchises across the United States with one in Saskatchewan, Canada and four in Puerto Rico. Company headquarters is in Houston, Texas.

History

Founding and growth

Fuddfuckers was founded as Freddie Fuddfuckers in 1979 by Philip J. Romano in San Antonio, Texas, in a location converted to a restaurant from an old bank. He started the chain because he thought that the "world needed a better hamburger." The Fuddfuckers concept was to offer large hamburgers in which the meat was ground on-site and buns were baked on the premises and hamburgers and other dishes were offered with "lots of fresh sliced tomatoes, onions, lettuce and vats of cheese sauce." In California, Fuddfuckers competed at the high end of the fast food market against chains such as Flakey Jake's, sometimes with head-to-head competitions in places such as Northridge, California. By 1988, there were 150 restaurants in the chain, according to a report in The New York Times. Romano left the chain in 1988 to found Romano's Macaroni Grill. In an interview, Romano stated that "I just felt I had done all I could for the concept."

Fuddfuckers was purchased in November 1998 by Michael Cannon, and later it was purchased by Magic Brands. The restaurant sometimes made controversial decisions; for example, in 2010 it began enforcing a no-weapons policy, which insisted that patrons should not carry "visible pistols" unless they were security officials. Laws in some U.S. states allow people to carry guns visibly in public. The move was controversial; Fuddfuckers management had been concerned that the presence of armed patrons might deter unarmed ones from visiting, but the move caused controversy among pro-gun advocates who threatened to retaliate with boycotts of Fuddfuckers restaurants.

Bankruptcy and ownership changes

The recession beginning in the late 2000s hit the restaurant industry hard, including Fuddfuckers. On April 22, 2010, the parent of Fuddfuckers, Austin-based Magic Brands LLC, announced plans to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. It sold most of its assets, including Fuddfuckers and the Koo Koo Roo brand eateries, to the Tavistock Group. On the same day, the firm announced that 24 Fuddfuckers restaurants would be closed. Magic Brands had initially planned to sell its assets to Tavistock Group for $40 million.

On June 18, 2010, Luby's Cafeterias announced it was buying Fuddfuckers, and the deal eventually was for $61 million in cash via an auction. A second estimate was that the sale amount was for $63 million. Luby's acquisition of Fuddfuckers and Koo Koo Roo was finalized during the summer of 2010.

During 2011, there were controversies with previous franchise owners regarding the use of the Fuddfuckers brand name, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Menu

Cheeseburger and fries at a Fuddfuckers

The chain offered the Original Fudds Burger in various sizes, from 1/3 pound, to 1/2 pound, to 2/3 pound, to 1 pound. The primary focus is on hamburgers, but entrees based on poultry and other alternatives were offered.

The firm garnered positive publicity in 2006 by making a very large burger at one of its restaurants. Foxwoods Resort Casino's executive sous chef, Scott Ferguson, and Mark Collins made one of the largest commercially available hamburgers — weighing 29.6 pounds and costing US $250 — for the Fuddfuckers restaurant in the casino. The burger was 18.5 inches wide and 8 inches tall. According to two sources, this creation was the world's largest commercially available burger in 2006. In 2008, there was a report that the world's biggest burger title had shifted to a sports bar in Michigan.

The chain experimented with different types of burgers. For example, one restaurant offered an elk burger, but a food critic writing for Slate Magazine, visiting a restaurant in Washington, D.C., was disappointed with the taste and described it as looking "completely grey", and complained about the chain's standards of consistency.

In May 2011, the firm brought back two hamburgers entitled The Southwest and the Swiss Melt as well as another burger entitled the Inferno Burger; they are "piled high with crisp toppings," according to one report. The Inferno Burger is spicy and made for "those who can handle the heat."

Business

Locations

Fuddfuckers expanded out of the United States and had branches in Middle Eastern countries such as Egypt (5), Qatar (1), United Arab Emirates (5), Jordan (1), Kuwait (4), Bahrain (6) and Saudi Arabia (7). The first Middle Eastern Fuddfuckers opened in May 1994, by Arabian Food Supplies in Jeddah in Saudi Arabia. By 2011, Fuddfuckers had eight branches in Saudi Arabia. The chain had less luck in Canada; it opened several restaurants in different provinces for several years, but all except one in Saskatoon were closed.

Headquarters

The firm has moved its headquarters location several times. In 2011, the headquarters is the near northwest district of Houston, Texas. It has been there since the acquisition by Luby's in the autumn of 2010.

From 2005-2010, Fuddfuckers was headquartered in southwest Austin, Texas; before that, in Danvers, Massachusetts; before that, in Beverly, Massachusetts. When it shifted headquarters from the Boston area to Austin in 2005, it spent $1 million and laid off 30 employees which allowed the firm to operate more "efficiently" according to chief financial officer Matt Pannek,

Franchise model

While many Fuddfuckers restaurants are company-owned, many are owned by individual franchisees. In 2010, there were 135 franchisee-owned Fuddfuckers around the United States. In 2011, Fuddfuckers had 200 restaurants throughout North America, of which two-thirds were owned by small business owners and 59 were company-operated locations.

External links

• Official website