Wendy's

For the Australian ice cream chain, see Wendy's Supa Sundaes.

Wendy's

Wendy's logo, featuring a red-headed girl with braids Wendy's logo, featuring a red-headed girl with braids
Company type	Public (NYSE: WEN)
Industry	Fast Food
Founded	1969 in Columbus, Ohio
Headquarters	Dublin, Ohio, U.S.
Key people	Dave Thomas, Founder
Products	Fast food, including hamburgers, french fries, and dairy desserts
Revenue	$2.439 billion USD (2006)
Net income	$37.0 million USD (continuing operations) (2006)
Number of employees	246,000 (2007)
Parent	Wendy's International, Inc.
Website	www.wendys.com

Wendy's is an international chain of fast food restaurants founded by Dave Thomas in 1969 in Columbus, Ohio. As of December 2006 Wendy's was the third largest hamburger fast food chain with approximately 6,700 locations after McDonald's (31,000 locations) and Burger King (11,200 locations). It is headquartered in Dublin, Ohio and owned by the American corporation Wendy's International, Inc.

Wendy's International is the parent company of Wendy's, and is a publicly traded company. Approximately 77% of Wendy's restaurants are franchised, the majority of which are located in North America. Wendy's and its affiliates employs more than 57,000 people in its global operations. In fiscal year 2006, the firm had $2.45 billion (USD) in total sales. While Wendy's sets standards for exterior store appearance, food quality and menu, individual owners have control over hours of operations, interior decor, pricing and staff uniforms and wages.

In response to the 1986 slowdown, Wendy's restructured its cleanliness standards, menu and other operational details to insure that stores met the goals and standards of the parent company so that its franchises were competitive in the market.

Wendy's menu consists primarily hamburgers, chicken sandwiches, french fries and beverages. The company does not have a signature product such as the Whopper or the Big Mac, instead the burger patties it uses in preparing its sandwiches are its signature item. Unlike other major chains, Wendy's burgers are square instead of round. The company also advertises that its burgers are made from fresh ground beef, not frozen.

Corporate profile

History

File:Wendys-store.jpg

A typical Wendy's location in Windsor, Ontario (Canada)

Wendy's was founded by Dave Thomas in 1969 and was named after Dave's second daughter, Melinda Lou Thomas, then eight years old, whom her older siblings nicknamed "Wendy" (originally "Winda", stemming from the child's initial difficulty saying her own name), as Thomas stated in his A&E Biography show. The corporate headquarters is located in Dublin, Ohio. The first Wendy's restaurant was opened in Columbus, Ohio on November 15 1969, and the chain grew rapidly to open over 3,000 restaurants by 1985. However, by the mid-1980s some under-performing Wendy's restaurants were closed. By 1986, Dave Thomas came out of retirement and started doing commercials for Wendy's and helped rebuild the restaurant until his death on January 8 2002.

File:Original Wendy's.jpg

Wendy's Original Restaurant on East Broad Street in Columbus, now closed

The first Wendy's Restaurant in Columbus, Ohio, opened by Dave Thomas in 1969, was closed on March 2 2007. The signs were removed from the building the morning after its last day in operation. Reasons cited for this closing included a lack of foot traffic by potential customers, the closure of museums within proximity of the restaurant, cost-prohibitive renovations that would have been needed, and the lack of an adequate parking lot in front of the facility. Additionally, there have been several large closures of Wendy's franchise groups in the last few years; most noticeably the closure of its Australian operations and the bankruptcy of the WenAmerica franchise group and closure of its fifty locations in the Midwest region of the US.

In Canada, as a result of Wendy's 1995 corporate acquisition of the Canadian doughnut chain Tim Horton's, many locations are joint Wendy's-Tim Horton's restaurants (although with separate staff at separate order counters).

A Wendy's in Brantford, Ontario

Key Dates

• 1969 Wendy's founded
• 1970 Opens first commercial drive-thru
• 1979 Introduces salad bar
• 1984 Where's the beef slogan debuts
• 1986 Near failure of 1/5 of Wendy's stores
• 1989 Super Value Menu debuts
• 1995 Acquires Tim Horton's
• 2002 Dave Thomas dies
• 2006 Wendy's divested itself of Tim Horton's

Products

The chain is famous for its square ground beef hamburgers. The idea for Wendy's "old fashioned" hamburgers was actually inspired by Dave Thomas' trips to "Kewpee Hamburgers" in his home town of Kalamazoo, Michigan. The Kewpee sold square hamburgers and thick malt shakes, much like the famous restaurant that Thomas eventually founded in Columbus, Ohio in 1969. The Kewpee restaurant still thrives in Lima, Ohio.

Wendy's hamburgers are served as a "Junior" 1.78 oz, Classic Single 4 oz, Big Bacon Classic 4 oz), Classic Double 8 oz and as a Classic Triple 12oz. It is also known for its desserts and chili. Originally Wendy's had only two kinds of chicken sandwiches, breaded and grilled. Their spicy chicken sandwich started out as a promotional sandwich but was put on the menu full-time in 1996 due to its popularity and the fact that compared to most promotional sandwiches, it was much simpler to make (it used the same condiments as the standard breaded chicken sandwich).

Also the Frescata line of sandwiches went from promotional items to being main menu items. After going through several revisions the Turkey and Swiss and the Ham and Swiss were put on the menu full-time.

In 1988, they were the first fast-food chain to create a "99 Cent Value Menu" where (until a couple years ago) everything on that menu was exactly 99 cents. Today however, the Super Value Menu prices can range from $0.99 up to $2.00

Breakfast

Wendy's has recently begun a national roll-out of its new breakfast menu in its US and Canadian stores. Wendy's experimented with serving breakfast for a short time in the mid-1980s, but the endeavor was unsuccessful due to several issues. While approximately 300 Wendy's restaurants in the US and its territories have been serving breakfast since then, Wendy's has not had a company-wide breakfast offering until 2005 when it began testing the current offerings. The new breakfast menu should be fully deployed nationwide (US) by late 2008 or early 2009.

The new breakfast menu differs slightly from the one featured in the 1980s, and is structured similarly to its lunch/dinner menu with value meals with a choice of sides and a 99¢ value menu, Menu items include several breakfast sandwiches served on biscuits and Kaiser rolls, breakfast burritos and side orders of hash browns, muffins and cinnamon sticks, In order to avoid issues from its original breakfast offerings from the 1980s, the new menu is designed for ease of operation, reduced preparation time and lower costs.

Superbar

In the late 1980s and early 1990s Wendy's also offered the "Superbar", an all-you-can-eat buffet. These buffets were reasonably-priced and generally consisted of three "pods": a salad pod, a hot items pod with spaghetti, tacos, burritos, garlic bread, etc., and a dessert and other cold items pod. These buffets, while popular and economical, did not fit into Wendy's fast-food oriented mindset. Most restaurants stopped featuring the buffets around 1998.

Menu items

• Wendy's combo meals originally featured French fries as the side item, but currently a number of options for side items are featured, including salads (side and caesar side), slow-cooked chili, yogurt with granola, mandarin oranges, and baked potatoes.
• In June 2006, Wendy's removed their classic "Biggie" and "Great Biggie" sizes in favor of a more traditional sizing system; "Small", "Medium", and "Large".
• In July 2006, Wendy's introduced a vanilla flavor of their famous Frosty dessert, which had previously been available only in chocolate. In 2007, the restaurant began serving the Vanilla Frosty Float. Despite its name, the drink may contain either vanilla or chocolate Frosty and your choice of any fountain drink, usually a cola. Later in 2007, Wendy's released the new Twisted Frosty, combing either chocolate or vanilla Frosty with your choice of candy, which are then blended together.
• In December 2006, Wendy's phased out and stopped offering their fried "Homestyle" chicken strips in most U.S. locations. There is now a chicken club combo in the strip's place, which features a Homestyle chicken patty, Spicy chicken patty or a Grilled Chicken patty with Swiss cheese and bacon. The Homestyle chicken strips are still available in Canada.
• In Japan, Wendy's offers a red bean paste and cheese sandwich called an "An" Burger (あんバーガー).
• On June 18, 2007, Wendy's switched the #4 combo from the Big Bacon Classic to the new "Baconator" in the United States. The sandwich comes with Mayo, Ketchup, 6 strips of bacon, two 1/4lbs. patties, and two pieces of American cheese. In all other countries, this burger was made the combo #9. The Big Bacon Classic is still available in Canada.

Advertising

After successful early growth of the chain, sales flattened as the company struggled to achieve brand differentiation in the highly competitive fast-food market. This situation would turn around in the mid-1980s. Starting on January 9, 1984, elderly actress Clara Peller was featured in the successful "Where's the Beef?" North American commercial campaign for Wendy's. Her famous line quickly entered the American pop culture (it was even used by Walter Mondale in a debate with Gary Hart in the Democratic primary election) and served to promote Wendy's hamburgers. Peller, age 84, was dropped from the campaign in 1985 because she performed in a commercial for Prego spaghetti sauce, saying she "finally found" the beef. Peller was soon after replaced by Wendy's founder Dave Thomas himself. Soft-spoken and cheerful, the "Dave" ads generally focused on Thomas praising his products and offering a commitment to quality service, although there would occasionally be "wackier" ads as well. After Dave Thomas' death in 2002, Wendy's struggled to find a new advertising campaign. After a round of conventional ads describing the food they serve, in 2004 they tried using a character they made called "Mr. Wendy" who claimed to be the unofficial spokesperson for the chain. After seven months, Wendy's returned to an animated campaign focusing on the difference between Wendy's square hamburgers and the round hamburgers of competitors. In 1997, the company pulled its advertising from the sitcom Ellen after the show's main character came out as a lesbian. The result was a boycott initiated by the gay and lesbian community. Wendy's recently began a cross-promotion with Nintendo. When you buy specific Wendy's items you receive a code on that can be entered on the web site FrostyFloat.com and be entered to win a Nintendo Wii.

Wendy's marketing arm engages in product placement in films (such as The Day After Tomorrow, Mr. Deeds, Garfield: The Movie, and Click) and television and is sometimes seen on ABC's hit reality show Extreme Makeover: Home Edition serving food to the more than 100 construction workers. A recent Wendy's commercial features the tune from the Violent Femmes song "Blister in the Sun."

Scrubs star Zach Braff can currently be heard in voiceover in Wendy's newest commercials. [1] With the launch of the new ad campaign, Wendy's has also unveiled a new slogan, "That's right."

Corporate sponsorship

Starting in 1994, Wendy's has sponsored the Wendy's High School Heisman Memorial Trophy Award (also known simply as the Wendy's High School Heisman), named after former college football player and coach John Heisman, to honor high school athletes who also excel in academics and in the community.)

Slogans

US - Canada

• 1970 - Present: Quality Is Our Recipe
• 1978: Juicy hamburgers and lots of napkins
• 1980: Wendy's Has the Taste
• 1981: Ain't No Reason to Go Anyplace Else
• 1982: You're Wendy's Kind of People?
• 1984: Where's the beef?
• 1987: Give a little nibble
• Circa 1990: The best burgers and a whole lot more (also was printed inside the hamburger wrappers during the 1990s)
• 1997 - Present: Eat great, even late
• 2002: It's hamburger bliss.
• 2004: It's better here
• 2004: Always Great, Even Late.
• 2005 - 2007: Do what tastes right. (primary slogan)
• 2005 - Present: It takes flair to be square.
• 2007: That's right.
• 2007: Uh Huh.

International

• 1983: It's the best time for...Wendy's (Philippines)
• 2000 (approx) - Present: We don't cut corners (New Zealand)
• 2000 (approx) - Present: Wendy's cuadra contigo (Wendy's fits with you). The word cuadra (fit) is a reference to the word cuadro that means square (Venezuela)
• 2001 (approx) - Present: El Sabor de lo Recien Hecho (The Flavor of the Brand New Made) (Honduras)
• 2007 (approx) - Present: Wendy's es Sensacional (Wendy's is Sensational) (El Salvador)

Controversy

Wendy's found itself the focus of a boycott by gay rights groups when the company pulled advertising from the sitcom Ellen in 1997, which it deemed "controversial." The company was not the only one to pull ads; other companies included J.C. Penney, General Motors, Chrysler, and Johnson & Johnson.

Countries with Wendy's restaurants

Wendy's in Japan

Map of Wendy's global locations
Countries currently with Wendy's locations:
Aruba Bahamas Canada with some locations co-branded with Tim Hortons Cayman Islands Costa Rica Dominican Republic El Salvador Greece Guam Guatemala Honduras Indonesia Italy Russia	Jamaica Japan Mexico New Zealand Panama Philippines Puerto Rico Saudi Arabia The Republic of China (Taiwan) Turkey United Arab Emirates United States Venezuela
Planned expansions:
Brazil	Chile
Denmark
Countries formerly with Wendy's:
Argentina Australia Colombia Germany South Africa South Korea	Greece Hong Kong Israel Hungary Singapore United Kingdom

Wendy's headquarters in Dublin, Ohio

When Wendy's opened stores in Australia and Colombia, they did not last long. Nine restaurants were picked up in Victoria by Hungry Jack's in 1986 after the Wendy's Hamburger Chain went bust.

Wendy's also opened restaurants in Hong Kong from 1991 to 2000.

Further, in the 1980s Wendy's operated some restaurants near military locations throughout Germany, but with the drawdown of the forces, Wendy's retired in the 1990s.

There is currently another brand of fast-food restaurants called "Wendy's" in Australia and New Zealand. They are an ice cream, hot dogs and drinks franchise which is unrelated to the American hamburger chain. (See Wendy's Supa Sundaes). Both the American and Australian chains' operations coexist in New Zealand. The outlets have different colour schemes.

Wendy's restaurants closed in Greece in 2002 after almost 8 years of operation due to heavy competition from other restaurants such as Goody's and McDonald's. It also closed its restaurants in Hungary on 30th June 2002 due to the same reasons. Wendy's also had locations in major cities across the United Kingdom; the company run locations were sold to McDonald's in 1999. Wendy's also had 18 restaurants in Argentina. All of them were closed in November 2000. Panama used to have Wendy's in the 80's, until they closed. They returned in the year 2000 with the one located in Paitilla.

Wendy's closed its restaurants in Dominican Republic around 2003 due to heavy competition, low sales and an economic crisis the country was living at the time. It returned in mid-2007 to great appeal and demand by the public. So far they've only opened one restaurant but are planning on expanding the franchise.

See also

• Carolina style (for Wendy's "Carolina Classic")

Other hamburger QSR vendors:

• Burger King
• Carl's Jr.
• Hardee's
• Jack in the Box
• McDonald's
• Sonic
• Hungry Jack's

References

• 'Wendy's International, Inc.', I Won Careers (2000). Retrieved August 21, 2005.

External links

• Wendy's official website
• Wendy's Philippines
• Junior! The Wendy's Guy - A cashier at the Wendy's in the University of Texas at Austin, who has gained notoriety for his quick fingers and friendly attitude.
• Wendy's famous "Soviet Fashion Show" commercial
• Wendy's "Where's the Beef?" classic commercial
• PDF (see page 2) with reference to only remaining UK location at Heathrow Airport/Terminal 3 Arrivals