Arbys
Arby's is owned by , the renamed Arby's Restaurant Group, Inc. (ARG). ARG was renamed as the company took over ownership of on February 5, 2018.
acquired 81.5% of Arby's Restaurant Group in July 2011 and now wholly owns Inspire Brands. held a minority stake of 18.5% in Arby's after the acquisition by Roark Capital; that share was reduced to 12.3% upon the purchase of Buffalo Wild Wings, and was sold back to Inspire Brands on August 16, 2018, for 450 million dollars, a 38 percent premium.
In addition to its classic Roast Beef and Beef 'n Cheddar sandwiches, Arby's products also include deli-style Market Fresh line of sandwiches, Greek gyros, Curly Fries and Jamocha Shakes. Its headquarters are in , a suburb of Atlanta which uses Atlanta mailing addresses. In 2019, there were 3,472 restaurants. There are locations in six countries outside the United States: Canada, Turkey, Qatar, Kuwait, Egypt, and South Korea.
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History
An Arby's restaurant with a vintage sign in (2006).
Arby's was founded in , on July 23, 1964, by Forrest (1922–2008) and Leroy Raffel, owners of a restaurant equipment business who thought there was a market opportunity for a fast food based on a dish other than . The brothers wanted to call their restaurants "Big Tex", but that name was already used by an business. Instead, they chose the name "Arby's," based on R. B. , the initials of R affel B rothers; although often mistaken for R oast B eef.
The Raffel brothers opened the first new restaurant in , just outside , on July 23, 1964. They initially served only sandwiches, potato chips, and soft drinks. Hoping to attract a more upscale clientele, Arby's interior design was purposely more luxurious in appearance than the typical fast food sandwich stand of the day. Arby's offered their roast beef sandwiches for $.69 at a time when hamburger stands were charging $.15 for a hamburger. A year later, the first Arby's opened a restaurant in Akron, Ohio. The famous Arby's "hat" was designed by the original sign makers, Peskin Sign Co.
Arby's medium roast beef with fries
During the 1970s, the expansion of Arby's took place at a rate of 50 stores per year. During this time it created several menu items, including the Beef 'n Cheddar, Jamocha Shakes, chicken sandwiches, Curly Fries, and two signature sauces: Arby's Sauce and Horsey Sauce. Baked potatoes were added to the menu in 1985. Curly Fries were initially introduced as Curly-Q Fries in 1988. It became the first restaurant in the fast food industry to offer a complete "lite" menu in 1991 with several sandwiches and salads under 300 calories and 94 percent fat-free.
The family-owned business tried converting into a public company in 1970 by offering the sale of stock, but the never went through when the stock market subsequently fell. In 1976, the family sold the company to for $18 million and Leroy Raffel remained as CEO until his retirement later.
In 1984, obtained Arby's via a of its then parent Royal Crown through his DWG Corporation. later, with a new owner of DWG Corporation and a new name, Triarc Companies, Inc., a former executive, Don Pierce, was brought in to "resurrect" Arby's. With $100 million additional funding, Pierce moved to a new "Roast Town" concept, similar in format to , in 1996. The Roast Town concept received poor marks in market tests and was quickly discontinued. Pierce and his team left the company and it sold all of its 354 company-owned locations to RTM Restaurant Group, an existing Arby's franchise, for $71 million. Another marketing concept that was tried was a dual-brand venture that was started in 1995 with ZuZu's Handmade Mexican Grill. The marketing venture was a failure resulting in lawsuits being filed by each company against the other.
In 1992, Les Franchises P.R.A.G. Inc. opened the first Arby's franchise in the Canadian province of Quebec. It was also the 100th location to open in Canada and joins other locations that were then operating in the provinces of Ontario, Alberta, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Manitoba, British Columbia, and Saskatchewan. The Quebec location also sold the uniquely called .
In 2002, Arby's returned to operating restaurants by purchasing the second largest Arby's franchisee, Sybra Inc., with 293 locations out of bankruptcy outbidding RTM so as to prevent RTM from becoming too large. RTM was purchased by Arby's on July 25, 2005.
In November 2002, Access Now filed a lawsuit against RTM, then a franchise of Triarc, that some 800 of their stores did not comply with the (ADA). The lawsuit had no liability damages except for lawyer fees. In August 2006, the court accepted the settlement between RTM and Access Now. The result was that every year, 100 of the RTM stores would be retrofitted to comply with the ADA. Accordingly, it was estimated that about $1.2 million would be spent to retrofit those stores each year.
In 2008, Triarc purchased , and changed its name to Wendy's/Arby's Group, to reflect their core businesses. In January 2011, it was announced that Wendy's/Arby's Group were looking into selling the Arby's side of the business to focus on the Wendy's brand. It was officially announced the companies would split on January 21, 2011. In 2009, the Wendy's/Arby's Group signed a franchise deal with the Al Jammaz Group of Saudi Arabia to open dual-branded Wendy's/Arby's through the Middle East with the first location opening in in the in May 2010. The Wendy's/Arby's Group also signed a similar franchise deal in June 2010 with Tab Gida Sanayi ve Ticaret to open dual-branded restaurants in Turkey. After the split, the former Wendy's/Arby's Group became The Wendy's Company.
In 2010, Arby's opened a restaurant at , their first location at an American military base under a deal that the Wendy's/Arby's Group had signed with the to open restaurants at bases both in the United States and overseas. Only American military personnel and some of their guests can patronize the Arby's locations situated on the military bases and operated by the Post Exchange.
There were two different attempts to operate franchises in the United Kingdom. GSR Restaurant Group opened their first Arby's franchise location in London in 1992 followed by a second location the following year in Glasgow. These were also the first locations to open in Europe, but both were to close by 1994. In 2001, Barown Restaurants opened two Arby's franchise locations in Southampton, Hampshire, and Sutton, Surrey, but both were to close after operating for a few months.
On June 13, 2011, Wendy's/Arby's Group Inc. announced that it would sell the majority of its Arby's chain to while maintaining an 18.5% stake in the company. At the time of the sale, Arby's was experiencing an operating loss for the year of $35 million with 350 Arby's franchisees more than 60 days late in royalty payments and 74 low performing franchised units and 96 company-owned units to close. Despite its cash flow problem, Arby's also reported that it had six months of sales growth at established stores in the United States which it had attributed to its new turnaround plan that it had recently launched. The new owners turned the company around by closing more underperforming locations, changing the company's marketing strategy, and by introducing new products on a regular basis. After , Arby's was able to issue $300 million in dividends, which resulted in Wendy's receiving $54.9 million for its minority stake with the remainder paid to Roark.
In February 2017, Arby's reported that they were investigating a attack on its payment card system that had targeted thousands of customers' credit and debit cards. The was placed on systems inside Arby's corporate-owned restaurants, not its locations owned by franchisees, and was active between October 25, 2016, and January 19, 2017.[url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arby%27s#cite_note-krebsonsecurity-2017feb09-52] https://en.wikipedia.o