Wendy's

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

Wendy's

File:Wendy's logo.svg
Company type	Wholly owned subsidiary
Industry	Restaurants
Founded	November 15, 1969 in Columbus, Ohio, USA
Headquarters	Dallas, Texas, USA
Key people	Dave Thomas (founder) Melinda Lou Thomas, nicknamed "Wendy" (chain's namesake) John T. Schuessler (Co-Founder)
Products	Fast food: hamburgersTemplate:·w chicken productsTemplate:·w saladsTemplate:·w french friesTemplate:·wmilkshakesTemplate:·w soft serve ice cream
Revenue	$2.469 billion USD (2006)
Net income	$37.0 million USD (continuing operations) (2006)
Number of employees	57,000 (2007)
Parent	Wendy's International
Website	www.Wendys.com

Wendy's freestanding unit in Hillsborough, North Carolina.

Wendy's Old Fashioned hamburgers is an international chain of fast food restaurants founded by Dave Thomas & John T. Schuessler on November 15, 1969, in Columbus, Ohio. As of December 2006, Wendy's was the world's third largest hamburger fast food chain with approximately 6,700 locations following McDonald's 31,000 locations and Burger King's 11,200 locations. On April 24, 2008, the company announced a merger with Triarc, the parent company of Arby's. Despite the new ownership, Wendy's used to be headquartered in Dublin, Ohio. Now Wendy's remains headquartered in Dallas, Texas. Previously, Wendy's had rejected more than two buyout offers from Triarc Companies Inc. Following the merger, Triarc became known as Wendy's/Arby's Group.

Wendy's/Arby's Group 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 46,000 people in its global operations. In fiscal year 2006, the firm had $9.45 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 a 1986 slowdown in the chain's performance, Wendy's restructured its cleanliness standards, menu and other operational details to ensure 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 of hamburgers, chicken sandwiches, French fries and beverages. The company does not have a signature sandwich, such as the Whopper or the Big Mac. Instead, the square burger patties it uses in its sandwiches are the signature item. The company also advertises that its burgers are made from fresh ground beef, not frozen patties.

History

The chain is known for its square ground beef hamburgers and the Frosty, a very thick milkshake. The idea for Wendy's "old fashioned" hamburgers was actually inspired by Dave Thomas's 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 original location was closed in March 2007 due to declining sales.

Menu

Wendy's offers two different hamburger patties, a "Junior" 1.78 ounce (50.4 gram) patty and its "Single" 4 ounce (113.4 gram) patty. Both patties are sold in single, double, and triple sandwich sizes. The previous size of 2 ounces per junior patty was altered to its current size in 2007 to save on expenses from rising food costs. Originally Wendy's had only two kinds of chicken sandwiches, fried 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. However the Frescata sandwiches were discontinued in December 2007.

In 1988, they were the first fast-food chain to create a single price-point value menu where all items listed on that menu were priced exclusively at 99¢. The menu was restructured in 2007 due to rising costs as the Super Value Menu with prices ranging from 99¢ to $2.00 USD.

Breakfast

In mid-2007 Wendy's began 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 many issues. While approximately 12 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. The new breakfast menu should be fully deployed to all Wendy's in the United States by the end of 2009.

The new breakfast menu differs slightly from the one featured in the 1980s, and it is structured similarly to its lunch/dinner menu with value meals and various sides like blended fruit. Menu items include several breakfast sandwiches served on biscuits, frescuit and Kaiser rolls, breakfast burritos and side orders of hash browns, muffins, and cinnamon sticks. In order to avoid the same issues the original 1980s breakfast offerings faced, 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. A smaller version of this bar, offering just salad items, was called the "Garden Spot."

Menu items

• Wendy's features French fries as its primary side item, but also offers a number of options for side items including salads (side Garden and side Caesar), chili, mandarin oranges, and baked potatoes. In several markets the customer may request any of these be substituted for fries in their value meals. A squeeze yogurt is also recently available for kids meals and as a substitute for combo meals, which has just recently been discontinued in some stores.
• In June 2006, Wendy's removed their classic "Biggie" and "Great Biggie" sizes in favor of a more traditional sizing system; "Value", "Small", "Medium", and "Large".
• Frosty dessert - a soft serve ice cream dessert sold in chocolate and vanilla flavors. The Frosty flavors are also sold as a float and a mix-in dessert, called the Twisted Frosty, with Oreo, M&Ms or Nestle Tollhouse Cookie Dough mix-ins. Recently, Frosty Shakes - a Frosty blended with either vanilla bean, strawberry or chocolate fudge syrup - have been served at Wendy's.
• In Costa Rica, gallo pinto is available. Gallo pinto is a breakfast dish made with fried rice and black beans.
• In Japan, Wendy's offers a red bean paste and cheese sandwich called an "An" Burger (あんバーガー).
• Big Classic - A sandwich that directly competes with the Burger King Whopper. Mayonnaise, lettuce, tomato, pickle, ketchup and onion served on a Kaiser-style roll. A second version with bacon is available, called the Big Bacon Classic.
• Baconator - with mayonnaise, ketchup, 6 strips of bacon, two 1/4 pound (113.4 gram) patties, and two slices of American cheese. In March 2008, Wendy's unveiled its promo Spicy Baconator, which consists of 6 strips of bacon, two slices of pepperjack cheese, a chipotle ranch sauce, and jalapeños.
• The Double Stack is Wendy's new 99 cent double cheeseburger. It comes with two 1.78-ounce patties, American cheese, ketchup, pickles, onions, and mustard on a regular bun.
• 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 strips' place, which features a Homestyle chicken breast with Swiss cheese, 3 strips of bacon, lettuce, tomato, and mayonnaise. Wendy's also offers the spicy or grilled chicken fillet sandwich, which comes with either honey mustard or mayonnaise, lettuce, and tomato. The Homestyle chicken strips are still available in Canada.
• There is a $.99 Five-piece Crispy Chicken Nugget item featured of the Super Value Menu, as well as the number nine, the 10-Piece combo. In parts of the country, however, the Five-piece nuggets are $1.19, $1.39, or $1.59..
• In the Philippines, Wendy's serves fried chicken, a staple at most fast food restaurants in that country.
• In April 2008, Wendy's introduced a new "Chicken Go Wrap". The Homestyle/Spicy wrap consists of 1/2 Homestyle or Spicy chicken, Ranch sauce, lettuce and grated cheddar cheese. Grilled wrap has 1/2 grilled chicken, Honey mustard sauce, lettuce and grated cheddar cheese.
• In October 2008, Wendy's starting offering its new "Flavor-Dipped Chicken Sandwiches", a fried chicken patty dipped in either BBQ or Buffalo sauce as a limited time item.
• In November 2008, Wendy's started serving Gourmet Mushroom Swissburgers, possibly to compete with Burger King's Steakhouse 'Shroom and Swiss Sandwich.
• In January 2009, Wendy's introduced the Premium Fish Filet sandwich, which comes with one square fish (North Pacific cod) fillet, tartar sauce, and lettuce. Cheese can be added for an additional price.

Wendy's also offers limited-time menu items such as the recently debuted chicken bowls featuring Sweet & Spicy Asian Chicken, Bold Buffalo, and Honey BBQ as well as their Premium Fish Filet sandwich. Sometimes these limited-time options are added back to the menu permanently depending on popularity.

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. 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. 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. These proved to be extremely unsuccessful. 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.

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 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." The Wendy's franchise outlet featured in The Day After Tomorrow is located on Route 4 in Paramus, New Jersey.

Other memorable campaigns include the "Ranch Tooth" campaign of 2005. The Ranch Tooth, as voiced by Adam Carolla and created by McCann Erickson Worldwide marketing protege Phil Kollin, reminded average people of their craving for a Monterrey Ranch Chicken Sandwich or Cheeseburger, often at an inconvenient time.

With their recent "That's right." ad campaign not a success, Wendy's has unveiled a new ad campaign, featuring an animated Wendy that's voiced by Luci Christian highlighting certain menu items. The new ad campaign made its debut in late January 2008, with a new slogan: "It's waaaay better than fast food. It's Wendy's."

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. This year, The NASCAR Nationwide Series will sponsor the Wendy's 300 at Lowe's Motor Speedway replacing the old Carquest Auto Parts 300.

Slogans

US - Canada

• 1970 - 1978: Quality Is Our Recipe (This Slogan is still shown on the Wendy's logo today.)
• 1978 - 1979: Juicy hamburgers
• 1979 - 1980: Hot-N-Juicy
• 1980 - 1981: Wendy's Has the Taste You Crave
• 1981 - 1982: Ain't No Reason to Go Anyplace Else
• 1982 - 1983: You're Wendy's Kind of People
• 1983 - 1984: Parts is parts
• 1984 - 1986: Where's the beef?
• 1985 - 1987: Choose Fresh, choose Wendy's (Originally used alongside "Where's the Beef?")
• 1987 - 1993: Give a little nibble
• 1989 - 1998: The best burgers and a whole lot more (also was printed inside the hamburger wrappers during the 1990s)
• 1997 - Present: You can eat great, even late
• 2001 - 2005: It's hamburger bliss.
• 2002 - 2005: It's better here
• 2003 - 2007: It's Always Great, Even Late. (Canada)
• 2005 - 2007: Do what tastes right. (primary slogan)
• 2005 - Present: It's good to be square.
• January 2007 - October 2007: That's right.
• January 2007 - October 2007: Uh Huh.
• 2007 - 2008: Hot Juicy Burgers
• February 2008: It's waaay better than fast food... It's Wendy's. (US)
• February 2008: It's waaaaaaaaaay delicious. It's Wendy's. (Canada)

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 Freshly Made) (Honduras)
• 2007 (approx) - Present: Wendy's es Sensacional (Wendy's is Sensational) (El Salvador)
• 2008 - Present: It's not just fast food; it's fresh food, made fast [3] (Malaysia)
• 2008 - Present: Old Fashion Hamburgers (Dominican Republic)

International locations

Wendy's in Japan

Map of Wendy's global locations Key: Red = countries currently with Wendy's Orange = countries formerly with Wendy's.
Countries currently with Wendy's locations:
Aruba Bahamas Canada with some locations co-branded with Tim Hortons Cayman Islands Costa Rica Dominican Republic Operated until 2002, reopened on June 30, 2007. El Salvador Guam Guatemala Honduras Indonesia	Argentina Operated from 1996 to November 2000. Reopening planned for 2008/2009 Jamaica Japan Malaysia - recently opened in Kuala Lumpur. Mexico New Zealand Panama Operated until the mid-1980s, recently reopened. Philippines Puerto Rico United States US Virgin Islands Venezuela

Wendy's headquarters in Dublin, Ohio

Current International Locations

Bahamas

There are currently 8 Wendy's locations in the Bahamas, 7 in Nassau and 1 in Freeport.

Cayman Islands

The first Wendy's location in the Cayman Islands was opened on the Seven Mile Beach in 1989. Two other locations have since opened, in Georgetown and Savannah.

Costa Rica

Wendy's entered Costa Rica in 2006 with a location in San José. Currently there are three locations: San Jose, Mall San Pedro and Santa Ana. There are plans to open a further 15 locations within 5 years.

Dominican Republic

Wendy's closed its Dominican outlets in 2002 but returned in June 2007. There are currently two locations, 1 in Santo Domingo and 1 in the Punta Cana Airport.

Jamaica

The first Wendy's location in Jamaica was opened in 1999 and is currently one of only two locations on the island, both in Kingston. In late 2007 Wisynco Group Limited purchased Wendy's Jamaican operations from the master franchisee and announced plans for a nationwide rollout of the chain beginning with a location in Montego Bay's Sangster International Airport which has yet to open.

Japan

Wendy's entered Japan in 1979 and now has 68 locations in the country, initially the chain struggled to substantially establish itself due to a focus on opening stores exactly the same as in the US and not tailored to meet the needs of the Japanese market. Wendy's is still relatively tiny in Japan when compared to chains such as McDonald's which has over 3800 locations across the country, the chain may soon also have to contend with increased competition from Burger King which returned to Japan in June 2007 after withdrawing in 2001, planning for 100 restaurants over the next five years.

Malaysia

Wendy's made its comeback to Malaysia mid 2008 and currently has 8 restaurants, located at Sunway Pyramid Mall and Jaya ONE in Petaling Jaya, IOI Mall in Puchong, and Jalan Sultan Ismail, Mont' Kiara Banyan Walk, Aeon AU2 Setiawangsa in Kuala Lumpur and recently in Berjaya Times Square, in the heart of Kuala Lumpur.

Mexico

Wendy's entered Mexico in the 1990s and currently there are 18 restaurants, 10 in Juarez, 4 in Chihuahua, 1 in Monterrey, 2 in Tijuana, and 1 in Torreon all in Northern Mexico. In 2008 plans were made to expand the chain nationwide and open 60 restaurants in the cities of Mexico City and Monterrey.

New Zealand

The first Wendy's location in New Zealand was opened in the late 1980s and currently there are 15 locations, 14 in Auckland and 1 in Tauranga. Recently Wendy's announced that it would open a further 20 restaurants to double it's presence in New Zealand, Wendy's is planning for 4 locations in Wellington, 2-3 locations in Hamilton, and locations in Palmerston North, New Plymouth, Taupo and Rotorua, in addition Wendy's is looking for further sites in Auckland and to expand to New Zealand's South Island to locations such as Christchurch and Nelson. The expansion emphasis will be on drive-through locations, Wendy's recently closed a prime corner location in Takapuna because of rising rent, inadequate parking and lack of drive-through facilities. In New Zealand the American Wendy's chain coexists with an Australian chain of the same name (see Wendy's Supa Sundaes).

Philippines

The first Wendy's location in the Philippines was opened in 1983 in Makati, today there are 31 restaurants across the country.

Former International Locations

Countries formerly with Wendy's locations:

Argentina Operated from 1996 to November 2000. Reopening planned for 2008/2009 Australia Belgium Colombia The Republic of China (Taiwan) Germany

Greece Operated from 1994 to 2002, reopening planned for 2008/2009 Hungary Hong Kong Operated from 1991 to 2000. Ireland Israel Kuwait Saudi Arabia Singapore Spain South Africa South Korea Operated from 1984 to 1998. Switzerland Thailand Turkey United Kingdom Operated in 1980's, closed in 1986, operated again from 1992 to 2000, one remaining store operated to 2007, none remaining as of January 2008.

Australia

When Wendy's opened stores in Australia, they did not last long. Nine restaurants in Victoria were opened in the 1980s and sold to Hungry Jack's (Australian franchise of Burger King) in 1986 to help ease debt. 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.

Germany

The first Wendy's location in Germany was opened in 1979 and at a time there were over 36 restaurants across the country. All locations had closed by the late 1980s to ease debt. Many former sites are now Pizza Hut.

United Kingdom

Wendy's has tried twice to establish itself in the United Kingdom, with unsuccessful results. The first attempt was made in the 1980s, with 16 restaurants opening. Sales were low and eventually all 16 restaurants were closed in 1986 and were sold off to Whitbread. The chain sold its UK restaurants (as well as those located in several other countries) with hopes to ease debt. Wendy's returned to the UK in 1992 for a second try, this time opening sites across the UK in prime locations. These included several in London (on Oxford Street, Shaftesbury Avenue, York Way, Croydon, Uxbridge, Acton, Hounslow, and Wood Green) and in other cities. A store was also opened in Dublin, Ireland. Wendy's was aiming for at least 25-30 initial UK outlets and was open to franchises and joint ventures with hotels and leisure/retail developments. However, growth progressed much more slowly than anticipated. 10-12 UK openings were predicted for the year 1995 alone, and in 1996 25 openings were planned. In 1997 a modest 6-8 openings were expected, and not even all of those eventually came to fruition. When all was said and done, only 18 restaurants opened total. Wendy's blamed the failure on high rent prices and operating costs (especially in Central London) for slow growth, and on competition with McDonald's, Burger King and KFC, all of which were already well-established in the highly-developed UK fast food market. In 1998 the company reviewed its UK operations and decided to close many of its badly performing company-owned restaurants; a further review in 1999 led to the closure of 7 remaining company-owned stores by mid 2000, including the company's valuable sites in London.

The company pulled out of the UK quickly and most restaurants were sold to rival McDonald's' or given back to leaseholders and landlords. The Croydon branch was taken over by an outdoor store, the Acton and Bradford branches became KFC and the Hounslow branch became a Greggs, The Watford branch became a Burger King (which it still is to this day), the Leeds Briggate branch was renovated and became a Macdonalds, and the Uxbridge branch became a test location for Taco Bell, which shortly closed soon afterwards. The sale of these stores generated £1.5 million. A handful of franchised restaurants were unaffected by the closing of company-owned restaurants, and Wendy's promised to support the existing UK franchisees from its headquarters in Dublin, Ohio although it no longer allowed new franchises to be opened. Over the years the few remaining franchised restaurants closed, and the final (located at Terminal 3 Arrivals at the London Heathrow Airport) closed in early 2007. It is unlikely that the chain will attempt to enter the British market again after two failures. The chain is one of several large US companies that have failed to establish themselves in the UK, including Taco Bell, Dunkin' Donuts, Arby's and Popeye's.

References

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

External links

• Wendy's official website