BURGER KING
BURGER KING (BK)
Burger King (NYSE: BKC), often abbreviated as BK, is a global chain of hamburger fast food restaurants headquartered in unincorporated Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States. The company began as a franchise restaurant chain, based in Jacksonville, Florida in 1953, named Insta-Burger King, and operated by Kieth J. Kramer and Matthew Burns.
After the company ran into financial difficulties in 1955, its two Miami-based franchisees, David Edgerton and James McLamore, purchased the company and rechristened it Burger King. Since that time, the company has used several variations of franchising to expand its operations. Burger King Holdings Corporation is the parent company of Burger King; in the United States 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 TPG Capital, Bain Capital, and Goldman Sachs Capital Partners each owning about 25% of the company.
When Burger King Corporation began franchising in 1959, it relied on a regional franchising model where franchisees would purchase the right to open stores within a defined geographic region. These franchise agreements granted BKC very little oversight control over its franchisees and resulted in issues of product quality control, store image and design and operations procedures.
One of Donald N. Smith’s first changes to the menu was the addition of the Burger King Specialty sandwich line in 1979, which significantly expanded the breadth of the BK menu with many non-hamburger sandwiches including new chicken and fish offerings. The new specialty sandwich line was one of the first attempts to target a specific demographic, in this case adults 18-34, members of which would be willing to spend more on a higher quality product. One of Smith’s other significant contributions to the menu was the addition of a breakfast product line, which until this time was not a market Burger King had entered. Besides the addition of the Croissan’Wich in 1983, the breakfast menu remained almost identical to the McDonald’s offerings until a menu revamp in 1985. This expansion introduced BK’s Am Express product line which added new products such as French toast sticks and Mini-muffins.
