Fast-food franchises

Question

This piglix contains articles or sub-piglix about Fast-food franchises

Answer 1

Smoothie King

Smoothie King Franchises Inc.

Smoothie King is a smoothie food retailer that caters blended fruit-based drinks. First opening in 1973 as a stand-alone vitamin shop in Kenner, Louisiana, Smoothie King now encompasses over 600 locations.

Working as a soda jerker in his teenage years, Steve Kuhnau, founder of Smoothie King, found himself unable to digest the malts, shakes, and floats he was preparing due to a lactose intolerance. Consequently, he formulated a smoothie in his kitchen as an alternative to other ice cream-based drinks of the era. Shortly after his first store opened in Kenner, Louisiana, in 1973, other stores opened in the New Orleans metropolitan area, and subsequently in Washington, D.C. and 32 other states. Kuhnau began to franchise the Smoothie King name and business in 1989. Smoothie King's 30-year anniversary, in 2003, was commemorated with their first international franchise, in South Korea.

In July 2012, Steve and Cindy Kuhnau sold the company to Wan Kim and Standard Chartered bank. Kim borrowed $58 million from Standard Chartered. In November, the company announced that it would move its headquarters from Covington, Louisiana, to Metairie, in Jefferson Parish, near the company's first store in Kenner. The company cited a $2.4 million promised incentive from the Louisiana Department of Economic Development for its decision to stay in the state.

Since 1989, Smoothie King has been named #1 franchise in its category 20 times by Entrepreneur Magazine.

On February 5, 2014, the New Orleans Pelicans of the National Basketball Association announced that they had reached a 10-year sponsorship agreement to rename the New Orleans Arena as Smoothie King Center. The arena had been one of only three NBA arenas without a naming rights sponsor. Smoothie King owner Wan Kim said the deal would allow the company to show its commitment to New Orleans while also promoting its brand worldwide.

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Wikipedia

Answer 2

Sonic Drive-In

Sonic Drive-In

Sonic Drive-In, more commonly known as Sonic, is an American drive-in fast-food restaurant chain based in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. As of August 31, 2016, 3,557 restaurants were in 45 U.S. states. In 2011, it was ranked 10th in QSR Magazine's rankings of the top 50 quick-service and fast-casual restaurant brands in the nation. Known for its use of carhops on roller skates, the company annually hosts a competition to determine the top skating carhop in its system. It also hosts, with Dr Pepper, an internal competition between drive-in employees.

Although Sonic has operated since the early 1950s, Sonic Corp. incorporated in Delaware in 1990. It has its corporate headquarters in Oklahoma City; the headquarters building features a dine-in Sonic restaurant in an adjacent building. Its stock trades on NASDAQ with the symbol SONC. Company restaurants are owned and operated by Sonic Restaurants, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary. Total 2011 revenues were around $546 million with net income of $19 million.

Sonic's menu consists of hamburgers and French fries, as well as onion rings, corn dogs, chili dogs and breakfast toaster sandwiches. Drink options include soft drinks, slushes, and milkshakes. Customers can combine various drinks and flavors to create thousands of possible drink combinations.Ice cream desserts include sundaes and banana splits.

At a standard Sonic Drive-In, a customer drives into a covered drive-in stall, orders through an intercom speaker system, and has the food delivered by a carhop. Most drive-ins also have patio seating, and many have drive-thru lanes.

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Answer 3

Southern Fried Chicken

Fried chicken

Fried chicken (also referred to as Southern fried chicken for the variant in the United States) is a dish consisting of chicken pieces usually from broiler chickens which have been floured or battered and then pan-fried, deep fried, or pressure fried. The breading adds a crisp coating or crust to the exterior. What separates fried chicken from other fried forms of chicken is that generally the chicken is cut at the joints, and the bones and skin are left intact. Crisp well-seasoned skin, rendered of excess fat, is a hallmark of well made fried chicken.

The first dish known to have been deep fried was fritters, which were popular in the Middle Ages. However, it was the Scottish who were the first Europeans to deep fry their chicken in fat (though without seasoning). Meanwhile, a number of West African peoples had traditions of seasoned fried chicken (though battering and cooking the chicken in palm oil). Scottish frying techniques and West African seasoning techniques were combined by enslaved Africans and African-Americans in the American South. Prior to the Second World War, fried chicken was often very expensive and was only enjoyed on special occasions. In the late 1900s and early 2000s, however, fried chicken has been mass-produced and the price of the dish has gone down significantly.

When being cooked, fried chicken is often divided into smaller pieces. The chicken is then generally covered in a batter, often consisting of ingredients such as eggs or milk, and a thickener such as flour. This is used to create a crust on the exterior of the meat. In addition, seasoning is often added at this stage. Once the chicken is ready to be cooked, it is placed in a deep fryer, frying pan or pressure cooker (depending on the method used) and fried in lard or a type of oil.

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Answer 4

Steers

Steers

Steers is one of South Africa’s most recognizable quick-service restaurant brands. The company is well known for serving flame-grilled burgers’ made from 100% pure beef and handmade chips. Other menu items include chicken burgers, ribs and Hero rolls as well as ice-creams and milkshakes.

Steers founder, George Halamandaris introduced the first steakhouse concept to South Africa after spending time in the United States. The name “Steers” evolved over the years from a variety of names, starting with Golden Spur, then Seven Steer followed by Branded Steer and Longhorn Steer.

The first ever Steers store was opened in 1970 by George’s son, John Halamandaris, in Jeppe, Johannesburg. John later joined forces with his four cousins, Panagiotis, Theofanis, Periklis and Charalambous Halamandaris. The early 80s saw the opening of a fourth Steers in Sandton City, which attracted interest from would-be franchisees. The other stores included Yeoville and Bellevue with a central kitchen in Johannesburg.

In the late 80s the Comitis family, who owned the Steers rights in the Western Cape, continued to grow the brand throughout Southern Africa. After decades of growth Steers became the most prominent fast food company in Southern Africa and the Comitis family sold their shares back to the Famous Brands parent company.

In 1983, Steers launched a new franchise programme. The owners placed a single advertisement in a local newspaper inviting franchisees to apply, and since then Steers has never had a shortage of prospective franchisees seeking to buy into the franchise. Within two years there were more than 15 outlets opened, and this number grew to 250 stores ten years later. By the end of the 90s Steers started expanding beyond South Africa’s borders, with outlets in Swaziland, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Mauritius, Zambia, Tanzania and Ivory Coast. There are over 500 franchises across South Africa and Africa. A Steers restaurant opened on Lavender Hill, Battersea, London, UK in late July 2013.

For 17 years in a row, Steers has been recognized by well-known Johannesburg listing magazine, Leisure Options, for serving the Best Hamburger in the QSR industry. Steers has also won ‘best chips’ for 13 years running.

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Answer 5

Stewart%27s Restaurants

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Answer 6

Submarina

Submarina

Submarina is an American chain of fast-food restaurants. Founded in 1977, the chain specializes in sub sandwiches.

Submarina was founded by Ron Vickers and Les Warfield of Reno, Nevada. They opened their first shop in Poway, California (a suburb of San Diego) and later opened the first official franchise shop in 1988. Today there are over 50 franchised Submarina locations with the headquarters in Houston, Texas.

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Answer 7

Subway (restaurant)

Subway IP, Inc.

Subway IP Inc., (doing business as Subway) is a privately held American fast food restaurant franchise that primarily sells submarine sandwiches (subs) and salads. It is owned and operated by Doctor's Associates, Inc., doing business as Subway IP, Inc. Subway is one of the fastest-growing franchises in the world, with 44,882 restaurants in 112 countries and territories as of December 27, 2016. The United States alone has 26,646 outlets. It is the largest single-brand restaurant chain and the largest restaurant operator in the world.

Subway's international headquarters is in Milford, Connecticut; five regional centers support Subway's international operations. The regional offices for European franchises are located in Amsterdam (Netherlands), the Australian, and New Zealand locations are supported from Brisbane (Australia); the Asian locations are supported from offices in Beirut (Lebanon) and Singapore, and the Latin American support center is in Miami.

In 1965, Fred DeLuca borrowed $1,000 from friend Peter Buck to start "Pete's Super Submarines" in Bridgeport, Connecticut, and in the following year, they formed Doctor's Associates Inc. to oversee operations of the restaurants as the franchise expanded. The holding company derives its name from DeLuca's goal to earn enough from the business to pay tuition for medical school, as well as Buck's having a doctorate in physics. Doctor's Associates is not affiliated with, nor endorsed by, any medical organization. In 1968, the sandwich shop was renamed "Subway".

The first Subway on the West Coast was opened in Fresno, California, in 1978. The first Subway outside of North America opened in Bahrain in December 1984. The first Subway in the United Kingdom was opened in Brighton in 1996. In 2004, Subway began opening stores in Walmart supercenters and surpassed the number of McDonald's locations inside U.S. Walmart stores in 2007.

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Answer 8

Sumo Salad

Sumo Salad

Sumo Salad is an Australian salad bar that founded in 2003 in Liverpool Street, Sydney Sydney by Luke Baylis and James Miller.

Initially, Baylis and Miller hired friends and family to develop the business, including a trainer and marketer. In its first decade, Sumo Salad grew through franchising to have 100 stores, including 9 outside of Australia, from Dubai to Singapore.

From 2013 to 2015, Sumo Salad partnered with Paleo diet advocate Pete Evans.

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Answer 9

Sweet Frog

Sweet Frog Enterprises, LLC.

Sweet Frog (stylised as sweetFrog - Premium Frozen Yogurt) is a chain of frozen yogurt retail stores owned and operated by Sweet Frog Enterprises, LLC. Sweet Frog customers create their own soft-serve frozen yogurt with numerous flavors and toppings from which to choose. Derek Cha, who immigrated to the United States from South Korea at the age of 12, is the founder of Sweet Frog. He started the first Sweet Frog store in Richmond, Virginia in 2009, at a time when the United States economy was in recession.. Cha founded Sweet Frog on Christian principles. The "FROG" part of the name, according to Cha, is actually an acronym for "Fully Rely on God".

The Sweet Frog stores' interiors are distinctively painted pink and green, and the typical store consists of seven or eight frozen yogurt machines, toppings bars and Sweet Frog merchandise, much of which is centered on Sweet Frog's mascots "Scoop" and "Cookie".

Derek Cha started Sweet Frog with only one store in 2009, and in four years Sweet Frog has grown to over 215 stores in 25 states in the U.S., with more stores located internationally in the Dominican Republic, the United Kingdom and Egypt. In its first 3 years of franchising, over 60 Sweet Frog stores were opened. By the spring of 2012, it was reported that Sweet Frog had 100 stores, and expected to have 200 by the end of the calendar year Cha's goal was to have 200 Sweet Frog stores by the end of 2012. An 24 April 2013, article reported that Sweet Frog had 240 stores at the time of that writing, which would include corporate-owned, licensed and franchised locations. It added that Sweet Frog had grown from 130 stores only seven months earlier in October 2012.By 2020, Cha stated that he would like to have 1,000 U. S. locations and 1,000 international locations

On April 17, 2012, Boxwood Capital Partners, LLC announced that it had made a growth capital investment in sweetFrog Enterprises, LLC. Boxwood's minority investment is being used to help fund Sweet Frog's expansion plans across the country and internationally. Subsequent to the investment, James Patrick Galleher, the Managing Director at Boxwood Capital Partners became the Chief Executive Officer of Sweet Frog Enterprises, LLC.

In 2014, sweetFrog was listed #22 on the Inc. 500 list of fastest growing private companies in 2014 with revenues of $34.4 million.

On February 2, 2015, it was announced that Boxwood Capital Partners, LLC had acquired sweetFrog Enterprises, LLC.

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Answer 10

Taco Bell

Taco Bell

Taco Bell is an American chain of fast-food restaurants based in Irvine, California. A subsidiary of Yum! Brands, Inc., they serve a variety of Tex-Mex foods, including tacos, burritos, quesadillas, nachos, other specialty items, and a variety of "value menu" items. Taco Bell serves more than 2 billion customers each year in 7,000 restaurants, more than 80 percent of which are owned and operated by independent franchisees and licensees.

Taco Bell was founded by Glen Bell, who first opened a hot dog stand called Bell's Drive-In in San Bernardino, California in 1946 when he was 23 years old. In 1950, he opened Bell's Hamburgers and Hot Dogs in San Bernardino's West Side barrio. According to Gustavo Arellano, author of Taco USA: How Mexican Food Conquered America, Bell watched long lines of customers at a Mexican restaurant called the Mitla Cafe, located across the street, which attracted a dedicated customer base for its hard-shelled tacos. Bell began eating there regularly, attempting to reverse-engineer the recipe, and eventually won the confidence of the proprietors such that they allowed him to see how the tacos and other foods were prepared. In late 1951 or early 1952, he took what he had learned and opened a new stand, this time selling tacos under the name of Taco-Tia.

Over the next few years, Bell owned and operated a number of restaurants in southern California including four called El Taco. Bell sold the El Tacos to his partner and built the first Taco Bell in Downey in 1962. On the night of Nov. 19, 2015, the original Taco Bell building in Downey was moved to the Taco Bell Corporate Headquarters in Irvine, CA. In 1962, he sold Taco-Tia. Kermit Becky, a former Los Angeles police officer, bought the first Taco Bell franchise from Glen Bell in 1964, and located it in Torrance. The company grew rapidly, and by 1967, the 100th restaurant opened at 400 South Brookhurst in Anaheim. In 1968, its first franchise location east of the Mississippi River opened in Springfield, Ohio. In 1970, Taco Bell went public with 325 restaurants. In 1978, PepsiCo purchased Taco Bell from Glen Bell.

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