|
Burger King revamps
|
 |
April 14, 1999: 10:43 a.m. ET
Home of the Whopper to get new logo, renovations, faster drive-through
|
NEW YORK (CNNfn) - After years of expanding from the outside, Burger King is making changes from within.
The fast-food chain said Wednesday it plans to transform its entire chain of 10,200 restaurants. Changes include new cooking platforms and renovated interiors and exteriors. Employees will get new uniforms and the company's "bun halves" logo will be redesigned.
Miami-based Burger King also said it will speed up its drive-through lanes, which account for 50 percent of sales.
Burger King is banking on the changes to increase sales "by hundreds of thousands of dollars per restaurant."
The company, however, declined to estimate the plan's cost.
"The restaurant will be different, and that will mean something to consumers," Burger King spokeswoman Kim Miller said.
One analyst said that after a decades-long building blitz, the decision to spend money on design and interior changes makes sense, particularly as demand for more fast-food restaurants slows.
"It's a good way to re-deploy their capital," said Greg Schroeder, vice president of research and analysis at Josephthal & Co. "They haven't spent as much money on their existing system in years."
For now, however, Schroeder said it's difficult to predict what the changes will mean for Burger King's bottom line.
Founded in 1954, Burger King, a unit of London-based Diageo (DEO) PLC, has grown into an international company with 10,200 restaurants in 53 countries.
With its flagship Whopper sandwich, Burger King said its share of the fast-food hamburger category rose from 17.2 percent in 1993 to 21.9 percent in 1998, with sales of $10.3 billion.
Still, the company faces continuing competition from McDonald's (MCD), the largest and best-known fast-food retailer with more than 24,500 restaurants in 115 countries, and successful upstart Wendy's (WEN).
When it comes to the logo changes, Burger King gets serious.
"Evolving our logo is not something we take lightly," Jacqueline McCook, senior vice president of strategic planning and brand standards, said.
The company said the new logo will have "larger, more dynamic lettering bursting out of the buns with everything set on an angle to suggest motion and dimension."
Burger King also plans to increase the number of company-owned stores to 2,000 from 500. The remainder will be franchises. 
|
|
|
|
|
|
Burger King
|
Note: Pages will open in a new browser window
External sites are not endorsed by CNNmoney
|
|
|
|
 |
|
