80-400: The BK Whopper Bar is a limited service concept created by fast-food restaurant Burger King in 2009. The Whopper Bar is a high end concept designed to compete with fast casual and casual dining restaurants. The locations feature an open kitchen with a semi-circular metal counter top. The exposed kitchen allows customers to view the preparation of their foods. Decoration of the new locations
160-626: A corporate restructuring of the chain, first renaming the company Burger King. They ran the company as an independent entity for eight years (eventually expanding to over 250 locations in the United States), before selling it to the Pillsbury Company in 1967. Pillsbury's management tried several times to restructure Burger King during the late 1970s and the early 1980s. The most prominent change came in 1978 when Burger King hired McDonald's executive Donald N. Smith to help revamp
240-696: A damaging fiscal slump for Burger King and Pillsbury. Poor operation and ineffectual leadership continued to bog down the company for many years. Pillsbury was eventually acquired by the British entertainment conglomerate Grand Metropolitan in 1989. Initially, Grand Met attempted to bring the chain to profitability under newly minted CEO Barry Gibbons; the changes he initiated during his two-year tenure had mixed results, as successful new product introductions and tie-ins with The Walt Disney Company were offset by continuing image problems and ineffectual advertising programs. Additionally, Gibbons sold off several of
320-756: A federal lawsuit. As a result, the larger Burger King chain was ordered not to build any franchises within a 20-mile radius of the Mattoon Burger King. An existing trademark held by a shop of the same name in South Australia forced the company to change its name in Australia to "Hungry Jack's", while another state trademark in Texas forced the company to abandon its signature product, the Whopper, in several counties around San Antonio. The company
400-603: A franchisee which is given the designation of master franchise for the territory. The master franchise will then be expected to sub-license new stores, provide training support, and ensure operational standards are maintained. In exchange for the oversight responsibilities, the master franchise will receive administrative and advertising support from Burger King Corporation to ensure a common marketing scheme. The 3G Capital ownership group announced in April 2011 that it would begin divesting itself of many corporate owned locations with
480-453: A geopolitical dispute involving Muslim and Jewish groups on multiple continents over the application of, and adherence to, international law . The case eventually elicited reactions from the members of the 22-nation Arab League . The Islamic countries within the League made a joint threat to the company of legal sanctions including the revocation of Burger King's business licenses within
560-556: A local master franchisee. However, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalism revealed that Burger King retained its stake in the Russian franchises through an offshore joint venture with the Russian state-owned VTB Bank and a Ukrainian investment firm linked to corrupt deals with Ukraine's former pro-Russian leader. In October 2023, Tom Curtis, president of Burger King U.S. & Canada, announced
640-431: A new 150,000 square feet (14,000 m ) five-story headquarters building to be built at 5707 Blue Lagoon Drive, just down the street from its existing nine-story headquarters at 5505 Blue Lagoon Drive. This was slightly smaller than the 200,000 square feet (19,000 m ) it was leasing in its current headquarters building at the time. In 2018, Burger King moved into its new headquarters at 5707 Blue Lagoon Drive after it
720-547: A new store design at its annual franchisee convention in Canada, branded "The Sizzle". The company planned to remodel existing Burger King locations with a new look inside and outside, to tackle slowing business after the 2020 coronavirus pandemic . The overhaul plan included more kiosks, dedicated pickup areas for mobile app orders, food-ordering platforms like Doordash , Uber Eats , and Grubhub , and an improved drive-thru service. In 2023, Burger King remodeled several locations in
800-617: A restaurant in Madrid . Beginning in 1982, BK and its franchisees began operating stores in several East Asian countries, including Japan, Taiwan , Singapore and South Korea . Due to high competition, all of the Japanese locations were closed in 2001; however, BK reentered the Japanese market in June 2007. BK's Central and South American operations began in Mexico in the late 1970s and by
880-570: A restructuring of the company to reverse its fortunes. 3G, along with its partner Berkshire Hathaway , eventually merged the company with the Canadian-based doughnut chain Tim Hortons under the auspices of a new Canadian-based parent company named Restaurant Brands International . Burger King's menu has expanded from a basic offering of burgers, french fries, sodas, and milkshakes to a larger and more diverse set of products. In 1957,
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#1732781122633960-693: A revamped menu strategy, a series of programs designed to revamp individual stores, a new restaurant concept called the BK Whopper Bar , and a new design format called 20/20 . These changes successfully re-energized the company, leading to a score of profitable quarters. Yet, despite the successes of the new owners, the effects of the Great Recession weakened the company's financial outlooks while those of its immediate competitor, McDonald's, grew. The falling value of Burger King eventually led to TPG and its partners divesting their interest in
1040-507: A substantial portion of its revenue was dependent on franchise fees. During the transitional period after 3G Capital acquired the company, Burger King's board of directors was co-chaired by John W. Chidsey, formerly CEO and chairman of the company, and Alex Behring , managing partner of 3G Capital. By April 2011, the new ownership had completed the restructuring of Burger King's corporate management and Chidsey tendered his resignation, leaving Behring as CEO and chair. Burger King Corporation
1120-469: A support organization for the families and friends of cancer patients. When the predecessor of Burger King first opened in Jacksonville in 1953, its menu consisted predominantly of basic hamburgers, French fries, soft drinks, milkshakes, and desserts. After being acquired by its Miami, Florida, franchisees and renamed to its current moniker in 1954, BK began expanding the breadth of its menu by adding
1200-548: A takeaway food shop in Adelaide . As a result, Burger King provided the Australian franchisee, Jack Cowin , with a list of possible alternative names derived from pre-existing trademarks already registered by Burger King and its then corporate parent Pillsbury, that could be used to name the Australian restaurants. Cowin selected the "Hungry Jack" brand name, one of Pillsbury's US pancake mixture products, and slightly changed
1280-878: A winning prize that is usually a food or beverage product, but includes (rarer) items such as shopping sprees or trips. In the Northeast , BK has affiliated itself with the Major League Baseball team the Boston Red Sox and its charitable foundation, the Jimmy Fund . The group runs the contest in Boston. In the New York City area, it operates the contest in association with the Burger King Children's Charities of Metro New York and
1360-665: Is currently an independently operated subsidiary of RBI . RBI's present organizational structure includes five primary segments: Tim Hortons , Burger King, Firehouse Subs , Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen and International. International encompasses the aggregated outcomes from the operations of each brand outside the United States and Canada. Josh Kobza, the CEO of RBI, was appointed in 2023. Before taking over as CEO in February 2023, Kobza served as CFO, CTO, and COO of RBI. Tom Curtis,
1440-571: Is limited to plasma televisions playing looped videos of open flames. The concept is similar to the McCafé concept from rival McDonald's , and like the McCafé locations they are designed for malls, airports, casinos and other areas with limited space. Whopper Bars are kiosk -type stores with a menu limited to the company's Whopper , TenderCrisp and Angus sandwiches; drinks; and desserts. The menu features higher-end ingredients and variants not sold in
1520-518: Is the master franchise and thus is now responsible for oversight of the operations that country with Burger King only providing administrative and advertising support to ensure a common marketing scheme for the company and its products. Over a 10-year period starting in 2008, Burger King predicted 80 percent of its market share would be driven by foreign expansion, particularly in the Asia-Pacific and Indian subcontinent regional markets. While
1600-587: Is the McLamore Foundation, also a non-profit, 501(c)(3) corporation that provides scholarships to students in the U.S. and its territories. In various regions across the United States, Burger King and its franchises have aligned themselves with several charitable organizations that support research and treatment of juvenile cancer. Each year, these coalitions hold a fund raising drive called "A Chance for Kids", in which Burger King restaurants sell lottery -style scratch cards for $ 1. Each card produces
1680-672: Is the only franchise to operate under a different name due to a trademark dispute with a similarly named restaurant in Adelaide , South Australia , and a series of legal cases between the two. The predecessor to Burger King was founded in 1953 in Jacksonville, Florida , as Insta-Burger King. After visiting the McDonald brothers' original store location in San Bernardino, California , the founders and owners (Keith G. Cramer and his wife's uncle Matthew Burns), who had purchased
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#17327811226331760-491: The 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine , many companies, including Burger King, faced growing pressure to halt operations in Russia. In March 2022, Burger King claimed to have suspended all its corporate support, including operations, marketing, supply chain, investments and expansion in Russia in response to the invasion of Ukraine, including support to the more than 800 fully franchised restaurant chains in Russia managed by
1840-556: The BSE and NSE in India. The IPO was subscribed over 150 times. The stock opened at ₹112.5 per share on December 14, nearly double the IPO price of ₹60 , and closed at ₹135 . Burger King has been involved in several legal disputes and cases, as both plaintiff and defendant, in the years since its founding in 1954. Depending on the ownership and executive staff at the time of these incidents,
1920-532: The Cutler census-designated place . In August 2014, the future of the company's Miami headquarters was again in doubt as reports surfaced that Burger King was in talks about buying the Canadian restaurant chain Tim Hortons . The merger between Burger King and Tim Hortons created the fast food company now known as Restaurant Brands International Inc. In 2016, Burger King signed a build-to-suit lease agreement on
2000-938: The New York Yankees . Funds raised in these areas go to support the Dana–Farber Cancer Institute , located in Boston. In Nebraska, the company is affiliated with the Liz's Legacy Cancer Fund "BK Beat Cancer for Kids" program at the UNMC Eppley Cancer Center at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha . In the Pittsburgh region, it funded the establishment of the Burger King Cancer Caring Center,
2080-600: The continental United States in 1963 with a store in San Juan, Puerto Rico , it did not have an international presence until several years later. Shortly after the acquisition of the chain by Pillsbury, it opened its first Canadian restaurant in Windsor, Ontario in 1969. Other international locations followed soon after, including Australia in 1971, with a restaurant in the Perth suburb of Innaloo , and Europe in 1975, with
2160-417: The " Whopper " became the first major addition to the menu, and it has since become Burger King's signature product. Conversely, Burger King has introduced many products that have failed to catch hold in the market. Some of these failures in the United States have seen success in foreign markets, where Burger King has also tailored its menu for regional tastes. From 2002 to 2010, Burger King aggressively targeted
2240-471: The 18–34 male demographic with larger products that often carried correspondingly large amounts of unhealthy fats and trans-fats . This tactic would eventually damage the company's financial underpinnings and cast a negative pall on its earnings. Beginning in 2011, the company began to move away from its previous male-oriented menu and introduce new menu items, product reformulations, and packaging, as part of its current owner 3G Capital's restructuring plans of
2320-432: The 1970s, all of which were spurned by Pillsbury. After the failed attempts to acquire the company, the relationship between Chart House and Burger King soured and eventually devolved into a lawsuit. Chart House eventually spun off its Burger King operations in the early 1980s into a holding company called DiversiFoods which, in turn, was acquired by Pillsbury in 1984 and absorbed into Burger King's operations. As part of
2400-486: The 1970s, structural deficiencies in Burger King's franchise system became increasingly problematic for Pillsbury. A major example was the relationship between Burger King and Louisiana-based franchisee Chart House, Burger King's largest franchisee group at the time with over 350 locations in the United States. The company's owners, William and James Trotter, made several moves to take over or acquire Burger King during
2480-598: The AmeriKing failure; one of BK's regional owners, Miami-based Al Cabrera, purchased 130 stores located primarily in the Chicago and the upper mid-west region, from the failed company for a price of $ 16 million , approximately 88 percent of their original value. The new company, which started out as Core Value Partners and eventually became Heartland Foods , also purchased 120 additional stores from distressed owners and revamped them. The resulting purchases made Cabrera
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2560-524: The Asian subcontinent and all Oceanic territories. The LAC region includes Mexico, Central and South America and the Caribbean Islands and has no centralized operations group. Australia is the only country in which Burger King does not operate under its own name. When the company set about establishing operations down under in 1971, it found that its business name was already trademarked by
2640-528: The Burger King headquarters with the remainder moving in phases in August 2002. Prior to the moving to its current headquarters in 2002, Burger King had considered moving away from the Miami area to Texas; Miami-Dade County politicians and leaders lobbied against this, and Burger King stayed. Before 2002, the company's previous headquarters was located in a southern Dade County campus located on Old Cutler Boulevard in
2720-435: The Canadian restaurant and coffee shop chain Tim Hortons and merge it with Burger King with backing from Warren Buffett 's Berkshire Hathaway . The two chains retained separate operations post-merger, with Burger King remaining in its Miami headquarters. A Tim Hortons representative stated that the proposed merger would allow Tim Hortons to leverage Burger King's resources for international growth. The combined company became
2800-594: The Caribbean (LAC). In each of these regions, Burger King has established several subsidiaries to develop strategic partnerships and alliances to expand into new territories. In its EMEA group, Burger King's Switzerland-based subsidiary Burger King Europe GmbH is responsible for the licensing and development of BK franchises in those regions. In APAC region, the Singapore-based BK AsiaPac, Pte. Ltd. business unit handles franchising for East Asia,
2880-523: The Indian market has the company at a competitive disadvantage with other fast food restaurants such as KFC because of the aversion of the country's large Hindu majority to beef. BK hopes to use their non-beef products, such as their TenderCrisp and TenderGrill chicken sandwiches, as well as other products like mutton sandwiches and veggie sandwiches, to help them overcome this hurdle to expand in that country. 3G has reported that it will continue with
2960-497: The TPC Capital-led group on hold. The developments eventually forced Diageo to lower the total selling price of the chain by almost $ 750 million . After the sale, newly appointed CEO Brad Blum initiated a program to help roughly 20 percent of its franchises, including its four largest, who were in financial distress, bankruptcy or had ceased operations altogether. Partnering with California-based Trinity Capital, LLC,
3040-585: The TPG-led group continued BK's international expansion by announcing plans to open new franchise locations in Eastern Europe, Africa and the Middle East, and Brazil, the company plan is focusing on the three largest markets – India, China, and Japan. The company plans to add over 250 stores in these Asian territories, as well as other places such as Macau , by the end of 2012. Its expansion into
3120-573: The United States with the "Sizzle" concept. While the remodel plan was an overhaul to the entire restaurant, Burger King was also investing in a "Refresh" initiative in order to replace equipment and upgrade technologies. By the end of 2023, Burger King completed 264 remodels and exited the year with 46% of its restaurants with a modern image. Burger King Holdings was the parent company of Burger King when it went public in 2002. Burger King derived its income from several sources, including property rental and sales through company owned restaurants; however,
3200-496: The Whopper sandwich in 1957. This quarter-pound (4 oz (110 g)) hamburger was created by Burger King's new owners James McLamore and David Edgerton as a way to differentiate BK from other burger outlets at the time. Since its inception, the Whopper has become synonymous with Burger King and has become the focus of much of its advertising. The company even named its new kiosk-style restaurants Whopper Bars . Trans-fat Too Many Requests If you report this error to
3280-508: The Whopper to "look about 35% bigger in its advertising than it is in reality". Burger King has two in-house national charitable organizations and programs. One is the Have It Your Way Foundation, a U.S.-based non-profit ( 501(c)(3) ) corporation with multiple focuses on hunger alleviation, disease prevention and community education through scholarship programs at colleges in the U.S. The other charitable organization
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3360-658: The assessment, believing that the move is a practical one because the company is growing with its aging customer base. Burger King Burger King Corporation ( BK , stylized in all caps ) is an American multinational chain of hamburger fast food restaurants . Headquartered in Miami-Dade County, Florida , the company was founded in 1953 as Insta-Burger King , a Jacksonville, Florida –based restaurant chain. After Insta-Burger King ran into financial difficulties, its two Miami-based franchisees David Edgerton (1927–2018) and James McLamore (1926–1996) purchased
3440-417: The brand. Neglect of Burger King by new owner Grand Metropolitan and its successor Diageo further hurt the standing of the brand, causing significant financial damage to BK franchises and straining relations between the parties. By 2001 and after nearly 18 years of stagnant growth, the state of its franchises was beginning to affect the value of the company. One of the franchises most heavily affected by
3520-429: The cases, the situations raised legal questions, dealt with legal compliance, or resulted in legal remedies such as changes in contractual procedure or binding agreements between parties. The resolutions to these legal matters have often altered the way the company interacts and negotiates contracts with its suppliers and franchisees, or how it does business with the public. Further controversies have occurred during
3600-485: The chain in a US$ 3.26 billion sale to 3G Capital of Brazil. Analysts from financial firms UBS and Stifel Nicolaus agreed that 3G would have to invest heavily in the company to help reverse its fortunes. After the deal was completed, the company's stock was removed from the New York Stock Exchange, ending a four-year period as a public company. The delisting of its stock was designed to help
3680-521: The communities they serve. On April 9, 2019, Nations Restaurant News reported that Burger King filed a lawsuit on Fritz Management LLC to remove Burger King trademarks from 37 units in South Texas after unsanitary conditions were found at a restaurant in Harlingen, Texas . In May 2019, the lawsuit was settled with the franchisee, Fritz Management (a subsidiary of Sun Holdings Inc), keeping
3760-552: The company a Q3, 2013 profit of US$ 68.2 million over the same quarter, 2012 of US$ 6.6 million. At the end of its 2013 fiscal year, Burger King was the second largest chain of hamburger fast food restaurants in terms of global locations, behind industry bellwether McDonald's, which had 32,400 locations. At the end of 2014, Burger King ranked fourth among US food chains in terms of US sales, behind McDonald's , Starbucks , and Subway . Burger King now has over 12,000 stores worldwide. In January 2024, Restaurant Brands International,
3840-531: The company established the Franchisee Financial Restructuring Initiative, a program to address the financial issues facing BK's financially distressed franchisees. The initiative was designed to assist franchisees in restructuring their businesses to meet financial obligations, focus on restaurant operational excellence, reinvest in their operations, and return to profitability. Individual franchisees took advantage of
3920-463: The company in 1959 and renamed it "Burger King". Over the next half-century, the company changed hands four times and its third set of owners, a partnership between TPG Capital , Bain Capital , and Goldman Sachs Capital Partners , took it public in 2002. In late 2010, 3G Capital of Brazil acquired a majority stake in the company in a deal valued at US$ 3.26 billion. The new owners promptly initiated
4000-523: The company licenses its franchisees varies depending on the region, with some regional franchises, known as master franchises , responsible for selling franchise sub-licenses on the company's behalf. Burger King's relationship with its franchises has not always been harmonious. Occasional spats between the two have caused numerous issues, and in several instances, the relations between the company and its licensees have degenerated into precedent-setting court cases. Burger King's Australian franchise Hungry Jack's
4080-494: The company repair its fundamental business structures and continue working to close the gap with McDonald's without having to worry about pleasing shareholders. In the United States domestic market , the chain fell to third place in terms of same store sales behind Ohio-based Wendy's . The decline was the result of 11 consecutive quarters of same store sales decline. In August 2014, 3G announced that it planned to acquire
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#17327811226334160-442: The company return to independence when it was purchased from Diageo by a group of investment firms led by TPG Capital for US$ 1.5 billion in 2002. 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 firms' strategy for turning the chain around included a new advertising agency and new ad campaigns,
4240-435: The company will be selling products from SABMiller and Anheuser-Busch including Budweiser , Bud Light and Miller Lite in aluminum bottles designed to maintain temperature. The move, designed to target the important 30-and-under demographic, has been called risky by industry analysts because the company is known as a fast food purveyor and not as an alcoholic beverages seller. Other industry consultants have disagreed with
4320-473: The company's assets in an attempt to profit from their sale and laid off many of its staff members. Burger King's headquarters experienced major damage in 1992 from Hurricane Andrew . After Gibbon's departure, a series of CEOs each tried to repair the company's brand by changing the menu, bringing in new ad agencies and many other changes. The parental disregard of the Burger King brand continued with Grand Metropolitan's merger with Guinness in 1997 when
4400-649: The company's expansion in the Middle East. The opening of a Burger King location in Ma'aleh Adumim , an Israeli settlement in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories , led to a breach of contract dispute between Burger King and its Israeli franchise due to the hotly contested international dispute over the legality of Israeli settlements in the Palestinian territories in accordance to international law. The controversy eventually erupted into
4480-517: The company's responses to these challenges have ranged from a conciliatory dialog with its critics and litigants, to a more aggressive opposition with questionable tactics and negative consequences. The company's response to these various issues has drawn praise as well as, in some instances, suggestions of political appeasement. A trademark dispute involving the owners of an unrelated restaurant also named Burger King in Mattoon, Illinois , led to
4560-402: The company. As of December 31, 2018, Burger King reported that it had 17,796 outlets in 100 countries. Of these, nearly half are located in the United States, and 99.7% are privately owned and operated , with its new owners moving to an almost entirely franchised model in 2013. Burger King has historically used several variations of franchising to expand its operations. The manner in which
4640-414: The company. In a plan called "Operation Phoenix", Smith restructured corporate business practices at all levels of the company. Changes included updated franchise agreements, a broader menu and new standardized restaurant designs. Smith left Burger King for PepsiCo in 1980 shortly before a system-wide decline in sales. Pillsbury's Executive Vice President of Restaurant Operations Norman E. Brinker
4720-561: The early 1980s in Caracas , Venezuela, Santiago , Chile, and Buenos Aires , Argentina. While Burger King lags behind McDonald's in international locations by over 12,000 stores, as of 2008 it had managed to become the largest chain in several countries including Mexico and Spain. The company divides its international operations into three segments; the Middle East, Europe and Africa division (EMEA), Asia-Pacific (APAC) and Latin America and
4800-512: The entire marketplace. Controversies and disputes have arisen with groups such as People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), governmental and social agencies, and unions and trade groups over various topics. These situations have touched on legal and moral concepts such as animal rights , corporate responsibility , ethics , and social justice . While the majority of the disputes did not result in lawsuits, in many of
4880-490: The formerly failing stores showed growth approaching 20 percent. As part of 3G's restructuring plan, the company decided to divest itself of its corporate owned locations by re-franchising them to private owners and become a 100% franchised operation by the end of 2013. The project, which began in April 2012, saw the company divest corporate-owned locations in Florida, Canada, Spain, Germany, and other regions. The move gave
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#17327811226334960-571: The franchising reorganization segment of Operation Phoenix, Donald N. Smith initiated a restructuring of future franchising agreements in 1978. Under this new franchise agreement, new owners were disallowed from living more than one hour from their restaurants – restricting them to smaller individuals or ownership groups and preventing large, multi-state corporations from owning franchises. Franchisees were also now prohibited from operating other chains, preventing them from diverting funds away from their Burger King holdings. This new policy effectively limited
5040-550: The intent to increase the number of privately held restaurants to 95%. In 2016, the percentage of privately owned Burger King establishments grew to 99.5%. RBI maintains that approximately 100% of Burger King franchises are privately held restaurants. Burger King was formerly headquartered in a nine-story office tower by the Miami International Airport in unincorporated Miami-Dade County, Florida. On Monday July 8, 2002, 130 employees began working at
5120-463: The lack of growth was the nearly 400-store AmeriKing Inc., one of the largest Burger King franchisees. By 2002, the franchise owner, which until this point had been struggling under a nearly US$ 300 million debt load and been shedding stores across the US, was forced to enter Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The failure of AmeriKing deeply affected the value of Burger King, and put negotiations between Diageo and
5200-625: The largest minority franchisee of Burger King, and Heartland one of the company's top franchises. By 2006, the company was valued at over $ 150 million , and was sold to New York–based GSO Capital Partners . Other purchasers included a three-way group of NFL athletes Kevin Faulk , Marcus Allen , and Michael Strahan who collectively purchased 17 stores in the cities of Norfolk and Richmond, Virginia ; and Cincinnati -based franchisee Dave Devoy, who purchased 32 AmeriKing stores. After investing in new decor, equipment and staff retraining, many of
5280-590: The member states' territories. A related issue involving members of the Islamic faith over the interpretation of the Muslim version of canon law , Shariah , regarding the promotional artwork on a dessert package in the United Kingdom raised issues of cultural sensitivity, and, with the former example, posed a larger question about what companies must do to ensure the smooth operation of their businesses in
5360-449: The name to a possessive form by adding an apostrophe "s" forming the new name Hungry Jack's. After the expiration of the trademark in the late 1990s, Burger King unsuccessfully tried to introduce the brand to the continent. After losing a lawsuit filed against it by Hungry Jack's ownership, the company ceded the territory to its franchisee. Hungry Jack's is now the only Burger King brand in Australia; Cowin's company Hungry Jack's Pty Ltd.
5440-657: The normal Burger King locations. While international locations sold beer at the Whopper Bar locations, the company originally stated that it did not intend to do so at its North American locations. The company changed its mind with the opening of its second Whopper Bar location in the South Beach section of the company's home town of Miami; Burger King reported that it would be the only current American, national fast food chain selling beer in its home territory. In markets where alcohol can be sold at fast food restaurants,
5520-505: The owner of the brand, announced it would purchase the largest franchisee of the chain, Carrols Restaurant Group , for around $ 1 billion. At the time of the announcement, Carrols had 1,022 Burger King locations (along with 60 Popeyes locations). The goal was to remodel 600 of the restaurants, then sell them back to franchisees over five to seven years. The move represented a departure from the existing model of largely franchising locations. While BK began its foray into locations outside of
5600-455: The plans to grow globally, even ramping up the planned expansion to help increase their return on investment. It is expected that 3G Brazilian-based management connections in the region may help Burger King expand in Brazil and Latin America, where it has been having problems finding acceptable franchisees. In December 2020, Burger King India went in for an initial public offering (IPO) on
5680-498: The president of Burger King U.S. and Canada, was appointed in 2021 and oversees the operation of the Burger King Corporation in the United States and Canada. In North America, Burger King Corporation is responsible for licensing operators and administering of stores. Internationally, the company often pairs with other parties to operate locations or it will outright sell the operational and administrative rights to
5760-458: The rights to two pieces of equipment called "Insta-machines", opened their first restaurants. Their production model was based on one of the machines they had acquired, an oven called the "Insta-Broiler". This strategy proved to be so successful that they later required all of their franchises to use the device. After the company faltered in 1959, it was purchased by its Miami, Florida, franchisees, James McLamore and David R. Edgerton. They initiated
5840-562: The size of franchisees and prevented larger franchises from challenging Burger King Corporation as Chart House had. Smith also sought to have BKC be the primary owner of new locations and rent or lease the restaurants to its franchises. This policy would allow the company to take over the operations of failing stores or evict those owners who would not conform to the company guidelines and policies. By 1988, parent company Pillsbury had relaxed many of Smith's changes, scaling back on construction of new locations, which resulted in stalled growth of
5920-403: The third-largest international chain of fast food restaurants. The deal led to a controversy over the practice of tax inversions , in which a company decreases the amount of taxes it pays by moving its headquarters to a tax haven , a country with lower rates, but maintains the majority of their operations in their previous location. As a high-profile instance of tax inversion, news of the merger
6000-399: The trademarks on all 37 units. On November 19, 2019, a lawsuit was filed by a vegan from Atlanta, Georgia against Burger King for allegedly failing to clearly disclose that Impossible Whopper burgers were heated on the same grill as their beef burgers. The lawsuit was dismissed. On March 28, 2022, a lawsuit was filed against Burger King, alleging the fast food chain falsely advertised
6080-426: The two organizations formed the holding company Diageo . Eventually, the ongoing systematic institutional neglect of the brand through a string of owners damaged the company to the point where major franchises were driven out of business, and its total value was significantly decreased. Diageo eventually decided to divest itself of the money-losing chain and put the company up for sale in 2000. The 21st century saw
6160-583: Was criticized by U.S. politicians, who felt that the move would result in a loss of tax revenue to foreign interests, and could result in further government pressure against inversions. In 2019, Burger King reported that it planned to close up to 250 low-volume locations per year, with closures coming into effect in 2020. In February 2021, Burger King began testing a customer loyalty rewards program called "Royal Perks" in Los Angeles, Miami, New York City, New Jersey and Long Island, New York. Following
6240-516: Was finished. As of August 2024, the Burger King system operates more than 18,700 locations in more than 100 countries and U.S. territories. When Burger King Corporation began franchising in 1959, it used a regional model where franchisees purchased the right to open stores within a geographic region. These franchise agreements granted BKC very little oversight control of its franchisees and resulted in issues of product quality control, store image and design, and operational procedures. During
6320-457: Was only able to enter northern Alberta , in Canada , in 1995, after it paid the founders of another chain named Burger King . Legal decisions from other suits have set contractual law precedents in regards to long-arm statutes , the limitations of franchise agreements , and ethical business practices. Many of these decisions have helped define general business dealings that continue to shape
6400-839: Was tasked with turning the brand around, and strengthening its position against its main rival McDonald's. One of his initiatives was a new advertising campaign featuring a series of attack ads against its major competitors. This campaign started a competitive period between Burger King, McDonald's, and top burger chains known as the Burger wars . Brinker left Burger King in 1984, to take over Dallas-based gourmet burger chain Chili's . Smith and Brinker's efforts were initially effective, but after their respective departures, Pillsbury relaxed or discarded many of their changes, and scaled back on construction of new locations. These actions stalled corporate growth and sales declined again, eventually resulting in
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