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File:Wendy's logo.svg "Now that's better" |
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Type | Wholly owned subsidiary |
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Industry | Restaurant |
Founded | Columbus, Ohio (November 15, 1969 ) |
Founder(s) | Dave Thomas |
Headquarters | 1 Dave Thomas Blvd Dublin, Ohio, United States |
Number of locations | 6,650 stores (2010) |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people | Dave Thomas, Founder Wendy Thomas, namesake |
Products | Hamburgers Chicken sandwiches Salads Breakfast sandwiches Frozen desserts |
Revenue | ![]() |
Net income | ![]() |
Total assets | ![]() |
Employees | 46,000 |
Parent | Wendy's Company |
Website | wendys.com |
Wendy's 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. It has been owned by Triarc (now called Wendy's Company) since 2008. 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] In 2011, Wendy's sales exceeded those of Burger King for the first time in the company's history. With sales of $8.5 billion (USD), the company ranked number two in hamburger chains, although Burger King still had far more restaurants.[4]
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, staff uniforms and wages.
Wendy's menu consists primarily of hamburgers, chicken sandwiches, French fries and beverages, including the Frosty, a form of soft serve ice cream mixed with frozen starches. Up until recently, the company did not have a signature sandwich, such as the Big Mac or the Whopper. Instead, the square burger patties (which are fresh ground beef rather than frozen patties) were their signature items. Recently the company introduced a new sandwich entitled, The "W".
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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.[6] The Columbus location later added a Tim Hortons and was closed on March 2, 2007 after 38 years of business due to declining sales.[7][8] Thomas named the restaurant after his fourth child Melinda Lou "Wendy" Thomas.[9] Photographs of her were on display at the original Wendy's restaurant until it closed.
In 1979, Wendy's was the first fast-food chain to introduce the salad bar. Garden Sensations salads were added in 2002.[10]
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 would be more competitive in the market.[5]
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.[11] 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.[citation needed] The merger was unsuccessful and Arby's was sold in summer 2011.[12]
Wendy's offers two different hamburger patties, a "Junior" 2.25 ounce (63.8 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. In August, 2011, the junior Mcdouble burger became discontinued and the new Cheesy Cheddarburger being introduced. 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).
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 $2.00 US$. In 2010, Wendy's introduced the Every Day Value Menu with 9 items at $0.99. ( 8 items at $ 1.89 in Canada)
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 1985, but the endeavor was unsuccessful due to many issues.[13][14] 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.[14][15] 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 1985, and it is structured similarly to its lunch/dinner menu, with value meals and various sides like blended fruit.[15] 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.[16] In order to avoid the same issues the original 1985 breakfast offerings faced, the new menu was designed for ease of operation, lower costs, and reduced preparation time.[14]
In 2011, Wendy's said the chain plans to change its breakfast menu. Pancakes and omelets have not been successful because they "aren't conducive to eating on the go."[12]
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.[19]
Peller was soon after replaced by a much less successful "give a little nibble" campaign, which was in turn 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 a boycott initiated by members of the gay community.[20] 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 a 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 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."[21] The company's most recent slogan, "you know when it's real," was introduced in 2009.
The chain's newest TV ad campaign, launched in 2011 alongside the introduction of the new "Dave's Hot 'N Juicy" hamburgers, features the chain's namesake Wendy Thomas.
Wendy's is the official sponsor of ESPN Football Friday every Friday during football season, getting fans ready with shows throughout the day previewing the upcoming college and NFL games. Also, Wendy's is the sponsor of the NBC Sunday Night Football Postgame show.
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Wendy's Supa Sundaes,trading as Wendy's, is a franchise chain of over 200 stores ice cream parlours in Australia and New Zealand. In New Zealand, it coexists with the Wendy's chain of fast food restaurants, which no longer operates within Australia.
The Wendy's franchise network of ice cream retail stores was founded in Adelaide, South Australia on 31 July 1979 by Geoff Davis and Phil Rogers. Wendy's has grown from a single store to a large franchise network of over 200 stores spread across Australia and New Zealand.
Wendy's sells products including hot dogs, scoop cones, frozen yoghurt, soft serve kids cones and mega shakes. Wendy's also sells ice cream cakes. Wendy's have "flavour of the month" ice cream and often offer customers a sample of ice cream while they wait for their order to be made.
In 2011 Wendys introduced Random Acts of Yum. Through the Wendys Yum Club members are able to nominate their business or organisation and be rewarded with a surprise visit by the Wendys team, including a full delivery of treats.
The Hisense 300 is an annual 300-mile (482.803 km) NASCAR Xfinity Series points race held at the Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord, North Carolina during Memorial Day weekend. The event is held the day before the Coca-Cola 600, the other races sponsored by Hisense is the Hisense 250 at Atlanta Motor Speedway and the Hisense 200 at Dover International Speedway.
The race's origins trace back to 1978, when a NASCAR race was held the day before the World 600 as a Late Model Sportsman Series race, and in 1982 it became a Busch Series race.
From 2005 to 2009 the race was a Saturday night race. For 2010, the starting time was moved to 2:30 p.m. EST in response to fans wanting an afternoon NNS race and allowing for ABC coverage, allowing it to be part of a television doubleheader weekend for ESPN, paired with the Indianapolis 500 the next day, Starting in 2015, the race will be moved to Fox after the departure of the NASCAR on ESPN content, both of the races in Charlotte (the Hisense 300 on Saturday, and the Coca-Cola 600 on Sunday) will air on Fox.