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Burger King (often abbreviated to BK) is a large international chain of fast food restaurants, predominantly selling burgers, french fries, soft drinks, desserts, and various sandwiches. It is headquartered in Miami, FL. Hungry Jack's is a franchisee of Burger King that owns, operates and franchises over 300 restaurants in Australia.
Corporate ProfileHistoryImage:Burgerkingrestaurant.jpg A Burger King restaurant in Redwood City, California 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.
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 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. On March 28, 2007, Burger King announced it was changing its policies to start using suppliers who do not confine their animals in crates or cages. The goal for the next few months, Burger King said in The New York Times, is for 2 percent of its eggs to be "cage free," and for 10 percent of its pork to come from farms that allow sows to move around inside pens, rather than being confined to crates; Those percentages would rise as more farmers shift to these methods and more competitively priced supplies become available.[2] Key Dates
Trademark disputesAs it expanded in the United States, Burger King found that smaller operations had previously been using the name. One such restaurant in Mattoon, Illinois negotiated a settlement that forbids the chain from opening locations within 20 miles (32 km). See Burger King (Mattoon, Illinois). In a trademark settlement with San Antonio local chain Whopper Burger, Burger King was not allowed to open locations within two counties of the city. The chain was ultimately bought out in the mid 80s, opening the way for San Antonio Burger King locations. A trademark conflict also arose in Australia; see Hungry Jack's, below. Facts and figuresImage:Burger King Seoul South Korea.jpg Burger King, Seoul, South Korea Image:Green Zone Burger King.jpg Burger King, Camp Liberty, Iraq 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. Hungry Jack's profileWhen 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 possible alternative names that Australian Burger King restaurants could be branded as. These names were derived from pre-existing trademarks already registered by Burger King and Pillsbury (which was, at that time, the parent company of Burger King). Cowin selected the branding Hungry Jack's, echoing his name and sentiment. 'Hungry Jacks' - without the apostrophe - was actually a Pillsbury brand, being used in the US to market pancake (flapjack) mixture. Accordingly, the first Australian franchise of the Burger King Corporation, established in Perth in 1971, was branded as Hungry Jack's. In 1986, Hungry Jack's purchased 11 failing Australian Wendy's Old Fashioned Hamburgers locations and rebranded them under the Hungry Jack's name. 1996 to 2001When 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 ProceedingsAs 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 in a case that eventually included the Australian operating arm of Royal Dutch Shell, and as a result Burger King Corporation was ordered to pay $AUD 75 million to Hungry Jack's for breach of its franchise agreement[4]. One final attempt was made by Burger King to appeal the decision to the High Court of Australia[5] however this appeal was dismissed. 2002 to the present dayIn 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"[citation needed]. 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.[6] Operational nuancesWhile 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. ProductsBurger King predominantly sells hamburgers, various types of chicken sandwiches, french fries, soft drinks, and desserts. In many markets BK offers salads and vegetarian items, wraps and other localized fare. This section provides a brief sampling of items common to BK's company-wide menu, a more complete listing can be found in the Burger King Products article. BurgersImage:Burger King Whopper Combo.jpg Whopper Combo with fries and drink
Chicken & fish
BreakfastAs with most QSR restaurants, Burger King's main breakfast menu products are breakfast sandwiches.
Other products
Advertising
Logos
The famous Burger King "bun halves" logo made its debut in 1960's and endured well into the 1990s. As its name implies, it was meant to resemble a hamburger: the logo had two orange semi-circular "buns" surrounding the name, which was the "meat" of the logo. In 1994 BK updated the logo with a graphical tightening, replacing the aging "bulging" font with a smoother font with rounded edges. In addition, all secondary signing, such as roof and directional signs, was also updated with new rounded font. In 1999, BK again revised its logo. The new Burger King logo is a stylized version of the original "bun halves" logo. BK changed the color the restaurant's name from orange to red lettering, while leaving them sandwiched between two yellow bun halves. The new logo also tilts the bun halves and the font on an axis, has a smaller "bun" motif and wraps the burger with a blue swirl giving it a more circular appearance. Most restaurants did not acquire newer signs with the new logo until 2001. Again all secondary signage was updated with the new logo and type face, and all sign posts were repainted to match the blue coloring of the new swirl from their original black.[7] The Hungry Jack's logo is based on the original Burger King "bun halves" design, and has been used since Hungry Jack's founding in 1971. HJ currently uses an updated version of the "bun halves" logo, featuring the smoother font used in revised Burger King logo from 1994.
Countries and territories with Burger King restaurantsImage:Burger king world locations.PNG Countries with Burger King restaurants Countries and territories that once had Burger King restaurants
Burger King in pop culture
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