Wendy's

Wendy's

You know when it's real.
Type	Wholly owned subsidiary
Industry	Restaurant
Founded	Columbus, Ohio, United States (November 15, 1969 (1969-11-15))
Founder(s)	Dave Thomas John T. Schuessler
Headquarters	Dublin, Ohio, United States
Number of locations	6,650 stores (2010)
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Dave Thomas Founder Wendy Thomas namesake John T. Schuessler Co-Founder
Products	Hamburgers Chicken sandwich Salads Breakfast sandwich Frozen dessert
Revenue	$2.469 billion USD (2006)
Net income	$37.0 million USD (continuing operations) (2006)
Total assets	$9.45 billion USD (2006)
Employees	57,000 (2007)
Parent	Wendy's/Arby's Group
Website	http://www.wendys.com

Wendy's Old Fashioned Hamburgers is an international fast food chain restaurant founded by Dave Thomas on November 15, 1969, in Columbus, Ohio, United States. The company decided to move its headquarters to Dublin, Ohio, on January 29, 2006. As of March 2010, Wendy's was the world's third largest hamburger fast food chain with approximately 6,650 locations, following McDonald's 31,000+ locations and Burger King's 12,000+ locations.^[1][2][3] On April 24, 2008, the company announced a merger with Triarc, the parent company of Arby's. Despite the new ownership, Wendy's headquarters remained in Dublin.^[4] Previously, Wendy's had rejected more than two buyout offers from Triarc Companies Inc. Following the merger, Triarc became known as Wendy's/Arby's Group, a publicly traded company.

Approximately 77% of Wendy's restaurants are franchised, the majority of which are located in North America. Wendy's and its affiliates employ more than 46,000 people in its global operations. In fiscal year 2006, the firm had $2.469 billion (USD) in total sales.^[5] While Wendy's 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.

Wendy's menu consists primarily of hamburgers, chicken sandwiches, French fries and beverages, including the Frosty. The company does not have a signature sandwich, such as the Big Mac or the Whopper. Instead, the square burger patties it uses in its sandwiches are the signature item. The company also advertises that its burgers are made from fresh ground beef, not frozen patties.

History

Wendy's freestanding unit in Hillsborough, North Carolina

The chain is known for its square hamburgers and the Frosty, a form of soft serve ice cream mixed with frozen starches. The idea for Wendy's "old fashioned" hamburgers was actually inspired by Dave Thomas's trips to Kewpee Hamburgers in his home town of Kalamazoo, Michigan. The Kewpee sold square hamburgers and thick malt shakes, much like the well-known restaurant that Thomas eventually founded in Columbus, Ohio, in 1969. Within a year, Thomas opened a second restaurant in Columbus, featuring what Wendy's claims in its corporate history was "the first modern-day, drive-thru window," added in 1971. While not the first, Wendy's crafted the formula for drive-thru operations that made it a staple in the fast food industry. The Columbus location was closed in March 2007 due to declining sales.^[6] Thomas named the restaurant after his fourth child Melinda Lou "Wendy" Thomas.^[7] Photographs of her were on display at the original Wendy's restaurant until it closed.

In the 1980s, Wendy's was the first fast-food chain to introduce the salad bar. Garden Sensations salads were added in 2002.^[8]

In response to a 1986 slowdown in the chain's performance, Wendy's restructured its cleanliness standards, menu and other operational details to ensure that stores met the goals and standards of the parent company so that its franchises were competitive in the market.^[5]

Jim Keet, later an Arkansas state legislator, brought the first Wendy's outlets to his state and eventually operated, with a partner, twenty-seven restaurants in Arkansas and Texas.^[9]

Menu

Wendy's headquarters in Dublin, Ohio

Wendy's offers two different hamburger patties, a "Junior" 1.78 ounce (50.4 gram) patty and its "Single" 4 ounce (113.4 gram) patty. 4 ounce patties are sold in single, double and triple sizes whereas the junior patties sell in single and double patties. The previous size of 2 ounces per junior patty was altered to its current size in 2007 to save on expenses from rising food costs. Originally Wendy's had only two kinds of chicken sandwiches, fried and grilled. The spicy chicken sandwich started out as a promotional sandwich. It was later put on the menu full-time in 1996 due to its popularity and the fact that, compared to most promotional sandwiches, it was much simpler to make (it used the same condiments as the standard breaded chicken sandwich).

The Frescata line of sandwiches also went from being promotional items to main-menu items. After going through several revisions, the Turkey and Swiss and the Ham and Swiss were put on the menu full-time. However, the Frescata sandwiches were discontinued in December 2007.

In 1988, Wendy's was the first fast-food chain to create a single price-point value menu where all items listed on that menu were priced exclusively at 99¢. The menu was restructured in 2007 due to rising costs as the Super Value Menu with prices ranging from 99¢ to $2.00 USD.

Breakfast

In mid-2007 Wendy's began a national debut of its new breakfast menu in its U.S. and Canadian stores. Wendy's experimented with serving breakfast for a short time in the mid-1980s, but the endeavor was unsuccessful due to many issues.^[10][11] While approximately 12 Wendy's restaurants in the U.S. and its territories have been serving breakfast since then, Wendy's has not had a company-wide breakfast offering.^[11][12] The new breakfast menu was expected be fully deployed to all Wendy's in the United States by the end of 2009, but as of July 2010, many Wendy's franchises across the country still do not have a breakfast menu.

The new breakfast menu differs slightly from the one featured in the 1980s, and it is structured similarly to its lunch/dinner menu, with value meals and various sides like blended fruit.^[12] Menu items include several breakfast sandwiches served on biscuits, frescuit and Kaiser rolls, breakfast burritos and side orders of hash browns, muffins, and cinnamon sticks.^[13] In order to avoid the same issues the original 1980s breakfast offerings faced, the new menu was designed for ease of operation, lower costs, and reduced preparation time.^[11]

Menu items

• Wendy's features French fries as its primary side item, but also offers a number of options for side items including salads, chili and baked potatoes. In several markets the customer may request any of these be substituted for fries in their value meals. A squeeze yogurt is also recently available for kids meals and as a substitute for combo meals, which has just recently been discontinued in some stores.
• Frosty dessert – a frozen dairy dessert sold in chocolate and vanilla flavors. The Frosty flavors are also sold as a float and a mix-in dessert, called the Twisted Frosty, with Oreo, M&Ms or Nestle Tollhouse Cookie Dough mix-ins. Recently, Frosty Shakes – a Frosty blended with either vanilla bean, strawberry or chocolate fudge syrup – have been served at Wendy's. Recently in 2009, some Wendy's locations began to serve Frosty-Cino shakes, made with coffee syrup and topped with whipped cream and chocolate dessert topping. They also added the coffee-toffee Twisted Frosty, a twisted frosty made with toffee topping in the same manner as the other Twisted Frostys.
• In Costa Rica, gallo pinto is available. Gallo pinto is a breakfast dish made with fried rice and black beans.
• In Japan, Wendy's offered a red bean paste and cheese sandwich called an "An" Burger (あんバーガー anbāgā). They also served several types of teriyaki burgers.^[14]
• Big Classic – A sandwich that directly competes with the Burger King Whopper. Mayonnaise, lettuce, tomato, pickles, ketchup and onions served on a Kaiser-style roll. A second version with bacon is available, called the Big Bacon Classic, which was replaced with the Big Bacon Deluxe in 2009 when the Applewood Smoked Bacon was introduced.
• Baconator -Single Baconator is one 1/4, pound patty topped with mayonnaise, ketchup, 3 strips of bacon and one slice of cheese; Double Bacaonator has mayonnaise, ketchup, 6 strips of bacon, two 1/4 pound (113.4 gram) patties and two slices of American cheese; and the Triple Baconator is 3 1/4 pound patties with 9 strips of bacon, three slices of cheese, mayonnaise, and ketchup.
• The Double Stack is Wendy's $1.50 double cheeseburger. It comes with two 1.78-ounce patties, American cheese, ketchup, 2 pickles, 2 onions and mustard on a small bun (edited). It was on the menu in the 80s and 90s, replaced with the $1.29 "Stack Attack" for several years, and brought back in late 2008. The Double Stack is now $.99 in most locations.
• In December 2006, Wendy's phased out and stopped offering their fried "homestyle" chicken strips in most U.S. locations. There is now a chicken club combo in the strips' place, which features a homestyle chicken breast with Swiss cheese, 3 strips of bacon, lettuce, tomato, and mayonnaise. Wendy's also offers the spicy or grilled chicken fillet sandwich, which comes with either honey mustard or mayonnaise, lettuce, and tomato. The homestyle chicken strips are still available in Canada.
• Outlets in North Carolina and South Carolina offer a sandwich called the Carolina Classic. The sandwich consists of a single quarter pound patty of beef, topped with chili and coleslaw.
• On July 9, 2010, Wendy's began serving four salads, including Apple Pecan Chicken, BLT Cobb, Baja Salad, and Spicy Chicken Caesar throughout the U.S.^[8]

Advertising

After successful early growth of the chain, sales flattened as the company struggled to achieve brand differentiation in the highly competitive fast-food market. This situation would turn around in the mid-1980s. Starting on January 9, 1984, elderly actress Clara Peller was featured in the successful "Where's the Beef?" North American commercial campaign written by Cliff Freeman. Her famous line quickly entered the American pop culture (it was even used by Walter Mondale in a debate with Gary Hart in the Democratic primary election) and served to promote Wendy's hamburgers. Peller, age 84, was dropped from the campaign in 1985 because she performed in a commercial for Prego spaghetti sauce, saying she "finally found" the beef.^[15]

Peller was soon after replaced by Wendy's founder Dave Thomas himself. Soft-spoken and bashful, the "Dave" ads generally focused on Thomas praising his products and offering a commitment to quality service, although there would occasionally be "wackier" ads as well. In 1997, the company pulled its advertising from the sitcom Ellen after the show's main character came out as a lesbian. The result was an inconsequential boycott initiated by the gay and lesbian community.^[16] After Dave Thomas' death in 2002, Wendy's struggled to find a new advertising campaign. After a round of conventional ads describing the food they serve, in 2004 they tried using a character they made called "Mr. Wendy" who claimed to be the unofficial spokesperson for the chain. These proved to be extremely unsuccessful. After seven months, Wendy's returned to an animated campaign focusing on the difference between Wendy's square hamburgers and the round hamburgers of competitors.

Wendy's marketing arm engages in product placement in films and television and is sometimes seen on ABC's reality show Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, serving food to the more than 100 construction workers. A recent Wendy's commercial features the tune from the Violent Femmes song "Blister in the Sun."

With their recent "That's right." ad campaign not a success, Wendy's has unveiled a new ad campaign, featuring an animated Wendy that's voiced by Luci Christian highlighting certain menu items. The new ad campaign made its debut in late January 2008, with a new slogan: "It's waaaay better than fast food. It's Wendy's."^[17] The company's most recent slogan, "you know when it's real," was introduced in 2009.

Slogans

US – Canada

• 1969 – 1978: Quality Is Our Recipe (this slogan is still shown on the Wendy's logo today.)
• 1978 – 1979: Juicy hamburgers
• 1979 – 1980: Hot-N-Juicy
• 1980 – 1981: Wendy's Has the Taste You Crave
• 1981 – 1982: There Isn't No Reason to Go Anyplace Else
• 1982 – 1985: You're Wendy's Kind of People
• 1983 – 1984: Parts are parts^[5]
• 1984 – 1986: Where's the beef?^[5]
• 1985 – 1988: Choose Fresh, choose Wendy's^[18] (Originally used alongside "Where's the Beef?")
• 1987 – 1993: Give a little nibble
• 1988 – 1992: The best burgers in the business.
• 1989 – 1998: The best burgers and a whole lot more (also was printed inside the hamburger wrappers during the 1990s)
• 1997 – Present: You can eat great, even late
• 2001 – 2005: It's hamburger bliss.
• 2002 – 2005: It's better here^[19]
• 2003 – 2007: It's Always Great, Even Late. (Canada)
• 2005 – 2007: Do what tastes right. (primary slogan)
• 2005 – Present: It's good to be square.
• January 2007 – October 2007: That's right.
• January 2007 – October 2007: Uh Huh.
• 2007 – 2008: Hot Juicy Burgers
• January 2008 – October 2009: It's waaay better than fast food... It's Wendy's. (US)
• January 2008 – October 2009: It's waaaaaaaaaay delicious. It's Wendy's. (Canada)
• January 2008 – October 2009: Carrément bon. C'est Wendy's. (Québec, Canada)
• October 2009 – Present: You know when it's real.

International

• 1983: It's the best time for...Wendy's (Philippines)
• 2000 (approx) – Present: Quality is our recipe (New Zealand)
• 2000 (approx) – Present: Wendy's cuadra contigo (Wendy's fits with you). The word cuadra (fit) is a reference to the Spanish word cuadrado that means square. (Venezuela)
• 2001 (approx) – Present: El Sabor de lo Recien Hecho (The Flavor of the Freshly Made) (Honduras)
• 2007 (approx) – 2009: Wendy's es Sensacional (Wendy's is Sensational) (El Salvador)
• 2008 – Present: It's not just fast food; it's fresh food, made fast (Malaysia)
• 2008 – Present: Old Fashion Hamburgers (Dominican Republic)
• 2009 – Present: "Wendy's, Sabor al cuadrado" (Mexico)
• 2009 – Present: Es Muuuuucho Más Que Comída Rapida, Es Wendy's (It's waaay better than fast food... It's Wendy's.) (El Salvador)

Global locations

See also

• Wendy's High School Heisman (student-athletes in various sports)

References

External links

• Wendy's official website

Wendy's People John T. Schuessler · Dave Thomas · Wendy Thomas Products Frosty · Frescata · Bacon Deluxe · Baconator · Big Classic Advertising Where's the beef? · Give a little nibble International Global locations Websites Wendy's homepage · Wendy's Investor relations · Nutrition Annual revenue  $3.74 billion USD (2004) · Employees 58,000 (2004) · Stock symbol NYSE: WEN · Website wendys.com