CKE Restaurants Holdings history

Hardee’s was founded by Wilber Hardee on September 3, 1960.

In May 1961, the first company store was opened by James Carson Gardner and Leonard Rawls in Rocky Mount, North Carolina.

In 1963, Hardee’s Food Systems went public and Rawls stood as its president and Gardner as the vice president.

In 1964, Hardee’s menu included hamburger for 15 cents, cheeseburger for 20 cents, fries for 10 cents, apple turnovers for 15 cents, milk for 12 cents, coffee for 10 cents, sodas for 15 cents each, and milkshakes for 20 cents.

The company was incorporated in 1966 by Carl's Jr. founder Carl Karcher.

And in 1968, a major expansion of the chain was launched.

It also purchased the Utah-based burger chain, Dee’s Drive-In in the late 1970’s.

Attempting to cash in on the increasing popularity of Mexican food, the company opened the first Taco de Carlos in 1972 and had 17 of them operating by decade-end.

In 1974 Carl's Jr. successfully reintroduced the drive-thru abandoned a decade earlier.

The company had also expanded into the northern part of the state and with this success, Carl’s Jr. built its Anaheim corporate headquarters in 1976.

And in 1978, it became the first QSR chain to offer salad bars in all of its 200 locations.

To help finance the expansion, they decided to take the company public, raising $13.79 million through the October 1981 initial public offering.

Then in an attempt to be a cross between a fast-food restaurant and a coffee shop, four charbroiler dinners were added to the menu in 1983&mdashøp sirloin steak, boneless chicken breast, rainbow trout, and ground beef steak.

In 1984, Carl's Jr. was franchised for the first time, an unusually long-delayed entry into franchising for a fast-food chain.

In 1985, the chain abandoned the dinners in another return to roots; restaurants signs which had read "Carl's Jr.

Carl Karcher credited the turnaround in part to the 1986 hiring of Raymond Perry as vice-president of operations; Perry had more than 20 years of restaurant experience, including serving as president of Straw Hat Pizza.

Karcher vigorously denied the insider-trading charges, but in July 1989, he and six relatives agreed to settle the case by paying a total of $664,245, without admitting guilt.

In 1991 opposition from gay and abortion rights groups led students at California State University, Northridge, to narrowly vote down the establishment of a Carl's Jr. on their campus.

In December 1992 Karcher attempted to simultaneously regain control and solve his money woes through a $103 million leveraged buyout of Carl Karcher Enterprises that he proposed with the Los Angeles investment firm, Freeman Spogli & Co.

In July 1994 the CKE board reversed course and approved a test of dual Carl's Jr./Green Burrito restaurants.

GB Foods subsequently sued CKE, calling the new concept a "knock-off." Finally in June 1995 the two parties settled their differences and agreed to develop a minimum of 140 dual-branded locations.

In April 1996 CKE spent $4.1 million for a 15-percent stake in the struggling Rally's Hamburgers, Inc., operator of a chain of nearly 500 Rally's double drive-thrus.

CKE's stock split 3-for-2 in January 1997 and the company announced an amendment to its dual-brand agreement with GB Foods whereby the original 140-unit commitment was increased to a minimum of 306 stores, with a minimum of 60 restaurants to be converted each year over a five-year span.

Rally's was later sold to Checkers in 1999.

Hardee’s headquarters was moved to St Louis, Missouri in 2001.

In March 2002, CKE purchased Santa Barbara Restaurant Group, Inc. (SBRG), acquiring with it direct ownership of the Green Burrito brand.

And in 2005, Hand-Scooped Ice Cream Shakes and Malts were introduced.

However, that location no longer exist in the present time because it was demolished in 2007 and replaced with a veteran’s park named for Jack Laughery, who is Hardee’s former chairman and military veteran.

Carl Karcher, the founder of Carl’s Jr., died on January 11, 2008 at the age of 90.

From 2010, Carl’s Jr., as well as Hardee’s, introduced other different burgers including the Charbroiled Turkey Burgers.

Hardee’s ranked as the number 28 foodservice chain by sales in the United States through 2011, based on the Nation’s Restaurant News.

In September 2013, Hardee’s expanded to the Northeastern United States.

And in April 2015, Hardee’s 300th restaurant in the Middle East was opened.

The name means "Carl Karcher Enterprises". On March 4, 2016, CKE Restaurants Holdings, Inc., announced that they would be consolidating their corporate offices in St Louis, Missouri, and Carpinteria, California, and moving them to the Nashville, Tennessee, area at the Franklin Park office complex.

On March 21, 2017, CKE announced the selection of Jason Marker as CEO for the company, succeeding Andrew Puzder.

CKE's Anaheim, California, office remained open until it was consolidated with the Franklin headquarters in 2018, with most of the Anaheim office's jobs outsourced to India and the Philippines.