karmi for fine foods : Hardee's

Hardee's

Hardee's Food Systems Inc. is an American fast-food restaurant chain operated by CKE Restaurants

Holdings, Inc. ("CKE") with locations primarily in the Southern and Midwestern United States. The

company has evolved through several corporate ownerships since its establishment in 1960 in North Carolina.

In April 1997, CKE Restaurants Holdings, Inc., the parent company of Carl's Jr., paid $327 million to

Montreal-based Imasco Limited for Hardee's.^[3] The merger created a chain of 3,828 restaurants – 3,152

Hardee's outlets in 40 states and 10 foreign countries and 676 Carl's Jr. outlets, primarily in California.

First Hardee's franchise, in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, 1980s

A Hardee's in Salem, Virginia

Hardee's founder, Wilber

Hardee, opened his first

restaurant in Greenville,

North Carolina, on September 3,

1960.^[4] After a year of success, Wilber decided to look into expanding his restaurant

and opening another location so he met with James Gardner and

Leonard Rawls to discuss doing so.^[5] Shortly thereafter, the first company store was opened in Rocky

Mount, North Carolina, in May 1961 by James Carson Gardner and Leonard Rawls on McDonald Street

on North Church Street in Rocky Mount, known within the chain as building number 1. That location was

demolished in 2007 and replaced with a veterans' park named for Jack Laughery, a former Hardee's chairman and military veteran.^[6]

According to Wilbur Hardee, Gardner and Rawls won a controlling share of the company from him in a

game of poker. After realizing that he had lost control over his namesake company, Hardee sold his remaining shares to them as well.^[7]

Rawls and Gardner sold their first franchises to a small group of longtime friends and acquaintances who

ormed their own companies and over time, built hundreds more franchised locations. Hardee’s Food

Systems went public in 1963 with Rawls as president. Gardner, who was vice president, had political

ambitions and left the company when he was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1966.^[5]

The 1964 menu included: hamburger-15 cents, cheeseburger-20 cents, fries-10 cents, apple turnovers-

15 cents, milk-12 cents, coffee-10 cents, Coke, Pepsi, root beer and orange soda-15 cents and 10 cents,

and milkshakes (chocolate-strawberry-vanilla)-20 cents. Strawberry shakes were created from vanilla by

addition of a berry syrup which had to be mixed with a spindle.^[5]

At the end of the 1960s, the corporation operated nearly 200 restaurants in the Midwest and

Southwestern U.S., as well as its first international locations in Germany.^[8] Around this same time,

Hardee's began an expansion into the mid-Atlantic states, notably Southeastern Pennsylvania, southern

New Jersey, and Delaware. The expansion was done via the franchisee Hardee Northern, Inc, which was

a subsidiary of Acme Markets, a prominent grocery store chain based in Philadelphia.

Hardee's purchased Sandy's in 1972 with the last of the restaurants converting to Hardee's by

1979.^{[citation needed]} During the mid-and-late 1970s, Hardee's saw rapid chain growth and high profits on

the strength of its two key sandwiches: the "Big Twin" and the "Big Deluxe".^{[citation needed]} Another

acquisition occurred in the late 1970s when Hardee's purchased the Utah-based burger chain Dee's Drive-In.

Hardee's logo, 1976-1999. Revived as part of a marketing campaign in 2018, alongside the current "Happy Star" logo.

Hardee's was purchased by Canadian company Imasco Limited in

1981. In 1982, General Foods sold Burger Chef to Imasco for $44

million.^[9]Imasco converted many locations to Hardee's restaurants

and let franchises and locations near existing Hardee's locations

convert to other brands. Remaining restaurants that did not convert

to Hardee's or new names and branding simply closed.

A new management team, in the early 1980s, seeking to cut costs,

changed the signature burger recipe and eliminated the flagship menu item, the Big Twin. The Big Deluxe

continued to be offered throughout the 1990s.

For a few years after acquiring the Roy Rogers Restaurants fast food chain in the early 1990s, Hardee's

outlets sold the popular Roy Rogers Restaurant fried chicken recipe, hoping it could compete

with Kentucky Fried Chicken.^{[citation needed]} In addition to Roy Rogers, Hardee's also owned Rax Roast

Beef for a period of time and sold roast beef sandwiches throughout the Hardee’s system.

In April 1997, CKE Restaurants Holdings, Inc., the parent company of Carl's Jr., bought Hardee's from

Imasco for $327 million. The merger created a chain of 3,828 restaurants – 3,152 Hardee's outlets in 40

states and 10 foreign countries and 676 Carl's Jr. outlets primarily in California.^{[citation needed]}

In 2001, Hardee’s headquarters moved to St. Louis, Missouri. In 2005, Hardee’s introduced Hand-Scooped Ice Cream Shakes & Malts.

In September 2013, it was announced that Hardee's would expand into the Northeastern United States.

In April 2015, Hardee's announced the opening of its 300th restaurant in the Middle East with longtime franchisee, The Americana Group.

In 2015, Nation's Restaurant News ranked Hardee's as the No. 28 foodservice chain by sales in the

United States through 2011. Carl's Jr. was ranked at No. 37. Combined sales would rank the two at No.

15. In 2013, QSR listed Hardee's at No. 20 and Carl's Jr. at No. 24; if combined they would have been listed at No. 14.^[10]

In July 2015, Hardee’s announced that it would be offering The All-Natural Burger, which launched at

sister-chain Carl’s Jr. restaurants in December 2014.^[11]

As of March 2016, CKE has a total of 3,664 franchised or company-operated restaurants in 44 states and 37 foreign countries and U.S. territories.^[12]

Controversies, disputes, and legal issues

Burger Chef copyright dispute

In January 2007, Hardee's had a challenge filed against it with the U.S. Patents and Trademarks Office by River West Brands, LLC of Chicago for the use of the Burger Cheftrademark and name. Shortly thereafter, Hardee's reissued the Burger Chef Big Shef sandwich in Terre Haute, Indiana, as a trial offering and later in additional Indiana markets and Dayton, Ohio for a limited time. The reissue of the Big Shef has also utilized the Burger Chef name and logo in advertisements in the markets in which it is offered, and claimed to provide Burger Chef fans with their Big Shef "fix". On April 16, 2009, River West Brands dropped their petition for cancellation and both parties agreed to pay their own attorney's fees.^[13]

Harvey's controversy

Due to a trademark dispute with Canada's Harvey's burger chain, the Hardee's brand name cannot be used in the country. Instead, CKE Restaurants operates exclusively under the Carl's Jr. banner.^[14]

A new Hardee's logo was unveiled in 2006 that featured script lettering and retained the iconic Happy Star, further unifying the Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr. brands. Hardee's also marketed special Super Bowl celebratory pins in the early 1990s.^{[citation needed]}

Hardee's logo, 2006–2018. This logo is still being used on new restaurant openings.

Controversy

Several Hardee's ad campaigns in the 2000s have been criticized by groups including Parents Television Council for their sexually suggestive nature. A campaign titled "More Than a Piece of Meat" featured scantily clad women appearing to receive sexual gratification from consuming Hardee's products, and "Name Our Holes" — an ad campaign and website promoting Hardee's Biscuit Holes.^[15]^[16]

In January 2015, Carl's Jr. released a commercial online featuring model Charlotte McKinney advertising its new All Natural Burger to air regionally during Super Bowl XLIX. The ad features McKinney walking around a farmers' market, implying that she is "all natural" and uses double entendres to suggest that she is naked with strategically placed items in the market until it reveals McKinney in a bikini eating the All Natural Burger. Critics suggest that the ad "sets feminism back four decades," while others, including McKinney's elderly grandfather, enjoyed the ad.^[17]^[18]^[19] The ad now features Hardee's cobranding, as the All Natural Burger is now offered by Hardee's. As of March 2016, the ad has received over 4.5 billion media impressions worldwide and more than 12 million views on the chains’ YouTube channel.^{[citation needed]}

Carl Hardee Sr. Campaign

In March 2017, Hardee's began to move away from the sexualized ads by releasing a commercial featuring a white bearded character played by Charles Esten as "Carl Hardee Sr." who had come back into the office (much to the delight of the employees) to find his son (Drew Tarver), a.k.a. "Carl Jr." who was focusing on sex appeal over its food. The commercial marked a turning point in CKE's advertising, as the company wanted to move away from its provocative ads and focus more on food and as a competitor to Five Guys, Steak 'n Shake, and In-N-Out Burger. "Carl Hardee Sr." was also expected to become the new company spokesperson.^[20]

Tastes Like America

In April 2018, Hardee's began their new campaign Tastes Like America with music by Big Wet. For this campaign, Hardee's restored its 1976 logo, now in white; however, the Happy Star still appears, replacing the A in "Tastes". The previous logo will also continue to be used as well.

International franchises

Many international Hardee's franchises are located in countries in the Middle East and Pakistan, most being owned and operated by Americana Group.^[21] The Americana Group opened the Middle East’s first Hardee’s restaurant in Kuwait in June 1980.^[12] As of 2016, there are over 300 Hardee’s restaurants throughout Latin America, Asia and the Middle East, specifically in Bahrain, Curaçao, Egypt, El Salvador, Guatemala, Hong Kong, Iraq, Jamaica, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Taiwan and the United Arab Emirates.^[12]^[22] Specifically, in the Middle East, the Hardee’s menu does not include any pork items and each beef is certified Halal due to religious and cultural beliefs. The same menu is offered at Hardee's locations in Pakistan, which opened its first location in the country in 2009 in Lahore.^[23] Hardee's currently has eighteen locations in Pakistan, with six in Lahore, four in Karachi, two each in Islamabad & Rawalpindi and one each in Faisalabad, Bhera, Peshawar and Multan. In 2014, it opened a restaurant in Erbil, Iraqi Kurdistan.^[24]

External links[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Hardee's.

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