Burger King

Burger King's first restaurant, originally called Insta Burger King, was opened on December 4, 1954 in a suburb of Miami, Florida, USA by James McLamore and David Edgerton, who were both alumni of the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration. McLamore had visited the hamburger stand belonging to Dick and Mac McDonald in San Bernardino, California; being able to sense potential in their innovative assembly line-based production system, he decided to create a version of his own.

Coincidentally, the McDonald Brothers's milkshake machine was sold to them by Ray Kroc, who later bought the McDonald's restaurant chain from them and oversaw its worldwide expansion.

In 1967, Burger King was bought by Pillsbury, which was bought by Grand Metropolitan PLC of Britain in 1988.

In 1989, the Burger King brand acquired many locations of its major UK rival Wimpy when its parent company bought the brand from its previous owner United Biscuits and re-branded them as "Burger King", giving it an even greater presence in that country. While other "Wimpy" locations are still trading today (now independent from BK) they no longer have the presence they once did (the market is now dominated by Burger King and the larger McDonald's).

In 1997, Grand Metropolitan merged with Guinness to form a company called Diageo.

On Friday, December 13, 2002, Burger King was purchased from Diageo for $1.5 (US) billion by a private equity group headed by Stanley Foster and the investment firm Texas Pacific Group (TPG). The company planned to go public within the next two years, though this was delayed until 2006. The new owners, through several new CEOs, revitalized the company; they realized about $367 million of the dividends.

On February 1, 2006, CEO Greg Brenneman announced TPG's plans to turn Burger King into a publicly traded company by issuing an Initial Public Offering. On February 16, the company announced it had filed its registration for the IPO with the Securities and Exchange Commission. On May 18, 2006, Burger King began trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol BKC.

Burger King Holdings is the parent company of Burger King, in the US it operates under the Burger King Brands title while internationally it operates under the Burger King Corporation banner. It is a publicly traded company with investment firms of Texas Pacific Group, Bain Capital, and Goldman Sachs each owning about 25% of the company.

Historically, Burger King has been the second largest burger chain in North America, behind McDonald's. However, Burger King's revenues and market share have been declining. In the early 2000s, Burger King fell to a near tie for second place with Wendy's. Burger King has been closing under-performing stores and changing its marketing strategy in an attempt to turn its fortunes around. In fiscal year 2002, the firm had US $11.3 billion in total sales.

As of 2006, there are more than 11,220 Burger King outlets in 61 countries. 66% of the restaurants are in the United States. The company has more than 340,000 employees who serve approximately 11.4 million customers daily.

Almost 90% of Burger King restaurants are privately owned and operated, or franchised. While Burger King Corporation 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. For example, Magic Johnson's company Magic Johnson Enterprises purchased 30 Burger King stores on June 7, 2004. The stores were redecorated with a sports memorabilia theme. These locations officially reopened on December 3, 2004.

Burger King has a longstanding presence at U.S. Army and U.S. Air Force installations worldwide, dating back to the 1980s under a contract with Army and Air Force Exchange Service. Today, while other chains such as Taco Bell, Popeye's and Subway have a presence on military bases, virtually every major Army and Air Force installation hosts a BK restaurant. Many Burger King outlets, even inside cities, require customers to operate a motor vehicle to purchase food during late evening hours.

Burger King is one of the few companies that does not accept communication via email.

When Burger King decided to expand its operations into Australia it found that its business name was already trademarked by a man running a small takeaway food shop. In consequence, the Australian franchisee, Jack Cowin, was provided by Burger King with a list of alternative names that Australian Burger King restaurants could be branded as. These names were from pre-existing trademarks already registered by Burger King. Cowin selected the branding Hungry Jack's, echoing his name and sentiment.

1996 to 2001: When the existing Australian registered trademark for Burger King lapsed in 1996, the American parent company wanted Cowin to change the Hungry Jack's outlets over to the Burger King name. Cowin resisted the change, but despite this Burger King proceeded between 1996 and 2003 to open more than seventy outlets in Australia under the Burger King name. These built on their existing stores in international airports - the international territory apparently outside the Cowin licensing deal. In some cases the new Burger King outlets were located very close to existing Hungry Jack's outlets.

Legal Proceedings

As a result of Burger King's actions, Hungry Jacks Pty. Ltd. began legal proceedings in Australia against the Burger King Corporation citing violation of the master franchising agreement.

In 2001, the case was finally resolved in favour of Hungry Jack's and as a result Burger King Corporation was ordered to pay $AUD 75 million to Hungry Jack's for breach of its franchise agreement. One final attempt was made by Burger King to appeal the decision to the High Court of Australia however this appeal was dismissed.

In 2002, Burger King Australia exited the country and sold a 51% share of its Australian restaurants to TPF, the company that operates Burger King in New Zealand. In an attempt to improve rapidly falling sales, TPF re-branded its Burger King restaurants as Hungry Jack's in late 2003 believing that the Hungry Jack's name with its 30 year history was the stronger brand. A market research survey conducted six months after the re-branding showed that Burger King had been the preferred brand, and that the words most often chosen by respondents in the survey to describe Hungry Jack's were "slow" and "dated". In mid 2005, TPF decided to exit the Australian market and sold its 51% share of the former Burger King sites to Hungry Jack's Pty Ltd, the company operated by Jack Cowin.

While Burger King's logo has since changed to the "blue swirl" design, the Hungry Jack's logo is still (as of 2007) based on the previous Burger King logo, employing the simpler bun-and-filling motif.

Hungry Jack's sells the usual range of burgers but also offers an Australian speciality: the Aussie Burger. This burger is based on the traditional Australian fish and chips shop favorite, including fried egg, bacon, onion, and beetroot, with the traditional meat, lettuce, and tomato. Hungry Jack's locations are required to follow any menu changes made by Burger King.

Hungry Jack's introduced a breakfast menu in late 2005 in three states (Queensland, New South Wales, and Northern Territory). It was subsequently introduced into the other states on October 31st 2006.

Hungry Jack's retains strong links with Perth, with the city's first team in the Australian Football League- the West Coast Eagles- having been sponsored by Hungry Jack's since their entry into the league in 1987.

Hungry Jack's has seen success with its Kids Club mascots, allowing children to have themed birthday parties at its restaurants, and also with its Kids Club Meals (similar to McDonald's Happy Meal) often using well known collectible toys; see Burger King Kingdom.

Hungry Jack's in Australia has trademarked the new slogan 'Oh Yeah' which has featured in late 2005/early 2006 commercials. Other changes at Hungry Jack's include new fresh salads and deli-style baguettes.

Many larger Hungry Jack's stores in Australia and New Zealand, especially in Perth, Western Australia, where the first Hungry Jack's store opened, have a 1950s/1960s styled theme. Background music from this era is played (sometimes through a 50s style Jukebox), and contemporary pictures and memorabilia are often hung around the stores. In larger sit-down style restaurants the seats and tables are laid out in a 1950s "Diner" style manner.