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Arby's history
Arby's company history timeline
The Raffel brothers opened the first new restaurant in Boardman, Ohio, just outside Youngstown, on July 23, 1964.
Arby’s, founded in 1964, is the second-largest sandwich restaurant brand in the world with more than 3,500 restaurants in nine countries.
The family-owned business tried converting into a public company in 1970 by offering the sale of stock, but the IPO never went through when the stock market subsequently fell.
In 1976, the family sold the company to Royal Crown Cola Company for $18 million and Leroy Raffel remained as CEO until his retirement three years later.
In 1984, Victor Posner obtained Arby's via a hostile takeover of its then parent Royal Crown through his DWG Corporation.
Curly Fries were initially introduced as Curly-Q Fries in 1988.
Curly Fries were initially introduced as Curly-Q Fries in 1988. It became the first restaurant in the fast food industry to offer a complete "lite" menu in 1991 with several sandwiches and salads under 300 calories and 94 percent fat-free.
In 1992, Les Franchises P.R.A.G. Inc. opened the first Arby's franchise in the Canadian province of Quebec.
These were also the first locations to open in Europe, but both were forced to close by 1994.
Another marketing concept that was tried was a dual-brand venture that was started in 1995 with ZuZu's Handmade Mexican Grill.
With $100 million additional funding, Pierce moved to a new "Roast Town" concept, similar in format to Boston Market, in 1996.
In 2001, Barown Restaurants opened two Arby's franchise locations in Southampton, Hampshire, and Sutton, Surrey, but both were forced to close after operating for a few months.
In 2002, Arby's returned to operating restaurants by purchasing the second largest Arby's franchisee, Sybra Inc., with 293 locations out of bankruptcy outbidding RTM so as to prevent RTM from becoming too large.
RTM was purchased by Arby's on July 25, 2005.
In August 2006, the court accepted the settlement between RTM and Access Now.
In 2008, Triarc purchased Wendy's, and changed its name to Wendy's/Arby's Group, to reflect their core businesses.
In 2010, Arby's opened a restaurant at Ft.
In 2008, Triarc purchased Wendy's, and changed its name to Wendy's/Arby's Group, to reflect their core businesses. It was officially announced the companies would split on January 21, 2011.
On June 13, 2011, Wendy's/Arby's Group Inc. announced that it would sell the majority of its Arby's chain to Roark Capital Group while maintaining an 18.5% stake in the company.
In February 2017, Arby's reported that they were investigating a malware attack on its payment card system that had targeted thousands of customers' credit and debit cards.
In September 2017, Arby's returned to Kuwait for the first time in two decades by the opening of an Arby's franchise in Jabriya by Kharafi Global.
In November 2017, Arby's announced it had negotiated a purchase for the restaurant chain Buffalo Wild Wings for $2.4 billion in cash.
In October 2018, Arby's expanded into the North African country of Egypt by opening three restaurants in the capital city of Cairo with the help of local franchise partner Vantage Egypt Tourism and Entertainment.
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Arby's competitors
| Company name | Founded date | Revenue | Employee size | Job openings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Burger King | 1954 | $2.3B | 34,248 | 1,695 |
| Wendy's | 1969 | $2.2B | 12,500 | 8,459 |
| Dairy Queen | 1940 | $3.6B | 2,055 | 836 |
| Subway | 1965 | $16.1B | 5,000 | 714 |
| Hardee's Food Systems Inc | 1960 | $920.0M | 16,680 | 17 |
| McDonald's | 1940 | $25.9B | 210,000 | 41,361 |
| Firehouse Subs | 1994 | $695.0M | 2,000 | 2,186 |
| Quiznos | 1981 | $170.0M | 1,500 | - |
| Taco Bell | 1962 | $2.0B | 175,000 | 29,317 |
| KFC | 1952 | $7.5B | 820,000 | 7,846 |
Arby's history FAQs
Zippia gives an in-depth look into the details of Arby's, including salaries, political affiliations, employee data, and more, in order to inform job seekers about Arby's. The employee data is based on information from people who have self-reported their past or current employments at Arby's. The data on this page is also based on data sources collected from public and open data sources on the Internet and other locations, as well as proprietary data we licensed from other companies. Sources of data may include, but are not limited to, the BLS, company filings, estimates based on those filings, H1B filings, and other public and private datasets. While we have made attempts to ensure that the information displayed are correct, Zippia is not responsible for any errors or omissions or for the results obtained from the use of this information. None of the information on this page has been provided or approved by Arby's. The data presented on this page does not represent the view of Arby's and its employees or that of Zippia.
Arby's may also be known as or be related to ARBY S RESTAURANT GROUP INC., Arby's, Arby's IP Holder LLC, Arby's Restaurant, Arby's Restaurant Group Inc, Arby's Restaurant Group, Inc. and Arby’s Restaurant Group, Inc.