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Burger King history
Burger King company history timeline
In 1954, they expanded their menu to include hamburgers and fries, among other foods.
In 1955 Frank Bates founded Whopper Burger in San Antonio, Texas.
Even though the original Insta-Burger King had rapidly expanded throughout the state and its operations totaled more than 40 locations by 1955, the group ran into financial difficulties.
The first to be created was its mascot, the Burger King in 1955.
Burger King Drive Inn was a mini-chain of restaurants founded in 1956 in Alberta, Canada.
The first to be created was its mascot, the Burger King in 1955. It was created in 1957 by James McLamore and originally sold for 37 cents.
The name was chosen because he felt that it conveyed "imagery of something big". Finally, the company made its first forays into advertising in the new medium of television with commercials for the chain in 1958.
1958: BK releases its first TV advertisement.
In 1959, they expanded their market beyond Florida and were now making more income as there were more customers from other states and this is also a big step that helped internationalize their business that was then catching up.
By 1959, the pair had stores at several locations within the Miami-Dade area, and operations were growing at a fast rate.
McLamore and Edgarton purchased the national rights to the chain in 1959 and rechristened the company as Burger King of Miami.
When Edgerton and McLamore’s Burger King decided to open their first location in the state of Illinois in 1961, little did they know the can of worms that they were opening.
By 1961, the Burger King and the special one called whopper were already known in the United States of America and most people had already tasted the burgers and the number of customers had also grown.
The company expanded ouside the United States in 1963 with a store in Puerto Rico.
Wealthy Louisianans Billy and Jimmy Trotter bought their first Burger King outlet in 1963.
Chart House, owned by brothers Billy and Jimmy Trotter, opened its first BK franchise in that state in 1963.
In 1970, when the franchisees in control of the lucrative Chicago market decided to sell out, Billy Trotter flew to Chicago in a snowstorm to buy the territory for $8 million.
By 1970 the Trotters' company had grown to over 350 stores across the country, with its own purchasing system, training program and inspection system.
In 1971, when Burger King established itself down under, they learned that their name had already been trademarked.
By 1971 they owned 351 stores with sales of $32 million.
By 1972 they were ready to take over altogether; the Trotters made Pillsbury a $100 million offer for Burger King.
In 1973 Chart House attempted to purchase the chain from Pillsbury for $100 million, but Pillsbury declined.
In 1975 Burger King reintroduced drive-through windows.
Donald Smith Leads Burger King to Number Two Position, 1977-80
When Smith came on board at Burger King in 1977, the company owned only 34% of the land and buildings in which its products were sold.
Accompanying the reintroduction of Coca-Cola, BK introduced its first major chicken sandwich since 1977; the new BK Broiler sandwich was a broiled sandwich targeting more health-conscious customers.
1977: Donald N. Smith is brought in from rival McDonald's to help restructure the company and its franchising system.
Burger King’s most marked change involved “pirating” Donald N. Smith, McDonald’s former executive, in 1978.
In 1978, the Burger King Corporation poached the main executive director of the McDonald Company into their company, and this saw them being able to agree on how the franchise will be made between the two companies.
In 1978, primarily in response to the appeal that newcomer Wendy's had for adults, he introduced specialty sandwiches--fish, chicken, ham and cheese, and steak&mdashø increase Burger King's dinner trade.
With the ongoing conflict with Chart House on the mind of the company's board in 1978, Burger King hired McDonald's executive Donald N. Smith to help revamp the company.
After McDonald's proved that breakfast could be a profitable fast-food addition (offering a morning meal spread fixed costs over longer hours of operation) Smith began planning a breakfast menu in 1979.
When Chart House purchased several restaurants in Boston and Houston in 1979, Burger King sued the selling franchisees for not respecting their contractual right of first refusal and won, preventing the sale.
After Smith's departure from the company for soft drinks producer PepsiCo in 1980, the company began to see a system-wide decline in sales.
1981: Norman E. Brinker is made head of Pillsbury's restaurant division, including Burger King.
^ a b c d Cuff, Daniel F. (18 May 1982). "Burger King Corp. replaces chairman". New York Times.
Brinker continued working for the company in this capacity until 1982 when he was promoted to president of Pillsbury's food service division, which included the company's other chains beyond Burger King.
1982: Burger King produces one of the first attack advertisements when it airs several commercials disparaging its competitor's fried burgers.
Traditionally Burger King had sold soft drinks from the Coca-Cola Company in the United States, but in 1983, PepsiCo was able to garner the US$444 million beverage supplier contract from its rival.
Brinker left the company in 1984 to take the helm at Dallas-based gourmet burger chain Chili's.
The company continued to expand abroad, opening a training center in London to serve its European franchisees and employees in 1985.
In 1985 the firm began a $100 million program to remodel most of its restaurants to include more natural materials, such as wood and plants, and less plastic.
In 1985 the company added just over half an ounce of meat to its Whopper, making the 4.2 ounce sandwich slightly larger than the quarter-pound burgers of its competitors.
The company introduced another successful new entree, Chicken Tenders, in 1986, only to find it that it could not obtain enough chicken to meet demand.
Drive-throughs proved to be a profitable element, accounting for 60 percent of fast food sales throughout the industry by 1987.
Charles Olcott, a conservative former chief financial officer, took over in 1987.
During the five years that led up to the purchase, the restaurant chain had a series of a half dozen ad programs accompanied by even more marketing directors, a situation that led Adweek to describe it as "ill-conceived marketing and downright sloppy strategic planning" in 1987.
These three events eventually forced Pillsbury to give up its bid to fend off Grand Metropolitan and agree to be acquired in November 1988 for a sum of US$5.7 billion.
^ a b c d Romeo, Peter (19 December 1988). "Brinker: a man with a vision". Nation's Restaurant News.
1989: Pillsbury is purchased by British liquor company Grand Metropolitan for $5.7 billion (bn)/£3.6 bn.
In 1990 the Burger King Kids Club program was launched nationwide, and more than one million kids signed up in the first two months.
The merger of the United Biscuits properties with BK grew the company from about 30 restaurants in the UK to more than 60 within a year of the purchase, with another 30 locations added in early 1990.
The facility would eventually take more than a year to rebuild, finally opening in September 1993.
While Gibbons was successful in accelerating the company's international growth, overall his tenure as CEO (which lasted until 1993) brought a mixture of successes and failures.
He improved the quality of products, such as in 1994 when the size of the BK Broiler, the BK Big Fish, and the hamburger were increased by more than 50 percent.
His changes were credited with a 28 percent increase in sales in BK's fiscal year 1995 and same store sales that were up 6 percent.
Through 1996 (when Disney broke with Burger King to sign a deal with arch-rival McDonald's), the partnership had involved such Disney smashes as Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King, and Toy Story.
Grand Met became Diageo PLC after its merger with the Irish brewer Guinness PLC in 1997.
On 1 February 2006, Out-going CEO Greg Brenneman announced TPG's plans to turn Burger King into a publicly traded company by issuing an initial public offering (IPO).
Burger King began trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol BKC on May 18, 2006.
^ Grace Wong (12 May 2006). "Burger King IPO set to fire up". CNN Money.
The company continued to decline until it was bought by Goldman Sachs and Bain Capital for 1.5billion dollars and an IPO was launched in 2006 which generated $425 million in revenue.
The new owners rapidly moved to revitalize and reorganize the company, culminating with the company being taken public in 2006 with a highly successful initial public offering.
The investment group initially planned to take BK public within the two years of the acquisition, this was delayed until 2006.
Further modernization plans were introduced in 2009 with the company's "20/20" store designs and its "BK Whopper Bar" concept.
2009: Company opens its 12,000th store, located in Beijing.
2010: Brazil-based 3G Capital acquires Burger King in a deal worth $3.26 bn/BRL$5.6 bn.
2011: Burger King begins a yearlong revamp of its menu and advertising programs.
In 2012 Burger King also announced plans to go public again after 3G Capital partnered with Justice Holdings LTD., a UK-based venture capital firm.
By 2012, Burger King shares were being sold to the public again, but 3G retained a controlling interest.
^ Carman, Tim (3 December 2013). "The 55-cent Whopper and the evolution of burgers". The Washington Post.
In August 2014, Burger King announced its intent to acquire the Canadian restaurant and coffee shop chain Tim Hortons.
Since opening first restaurant in November 2014 the company has used a well defined restaurant roll out and development process with the aim of growing quickly consistently and efficiently into a pan-India QSR chain and capitalising on the growing market opportunity in India for QSR restaurants.
Uber gets into damage control with the story of a changed company post 2017
Burger King Corporation awarded the company the 'Global Master Franchisee of the Year' in 2018 for the Company's strong business performance on sales operations development and profitability.
At 1.79 million, demat accounts opened in June fewest since Feb 2021
Rajasthan Gases Ltd - Statement Of Investor Complaints For The Quarter Ended June 2022
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| Company name | Founded date | Revenue | Employee size | Job openings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jack in the Box | 1951 | $1.6B | 22,000 | 2,512 |
| Fiesta Restaurant Group | 2011 | $387.4M | 4,480 | - |
| Quality Dining | 1967 | $400.0M | 7,176 | - |
| Prandium, Inc. | 1986 | $500.0M | 8,167 | - |
| Wendy's | 1969 | $2.2B | 12,500 | 9,062 |
| Dairy Queen | 1940 | $3.6B | 2,055 | 825 |
| Subway | 1965 | $16.1B | 5,000 | 703 |
| Sonic Drive-In | 1953 | $423.6M | 5,000 | 7,745 |
| McDonald's | 1940 | $25.9B | 210,000 | 50,159 |
| Arby's | 1964 | $3.9B | 80,000 | 4,104 |
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Burger King may also be known as or be related to BURGER KING HOLDINGS INC, Burger King, Burger King Corporation, Burger King Corporation. and Burger King Holdings Inc.