Arby's

• 1. Introduction

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  When Arby's first opened, a roast beef sandwich cost 69 cents. Hamburger stands at the time were charging 15 cents for a hamburger. That gap was a deliberate bet that diners would pay more for something other than a burger. Today Arby's is an American sandwich chain headquartered in Sandy Springs, Georgia, a suburb of Atlanta.

  How did such a pricey bet survive the decades that followed? What name did the founders want for their restaurants, and why did they have to give it up? Who owned Arby's as it passed through a soft drink company, a hostile takeover and a split from Wendy's? And why did a roast beef chain end up selling wild game to hunters?

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• 2. Two Brothers and a Name

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  Forrest Raffel, born in 1922, and his brother Leroy, born in 1927, made their living selling restaurant equipment. They saw room in the market for a fast food franchise built on something other than hamburgers. Forrest died in 2008 and Leroy in 2023.

  The brothers wanted to call their restaurants "Big Tex". An Akron business already used that name, so they had to look elsewhere. They settled on Arby's, a phonetic spelling of the letters R and B, which stood for "Raffel brothers".

  On the 23rd of July 1964, the first new Arby's restaurant opened in Boardman, Ohio. The menu held only roast beef sandwiches, potato chips and soft drinks. The founders hoped to draw a more upscale crowd, so they gave the dining room a deliberately richer look than the typical fast-food sandwich stand of the day.

  A year later, the first licensee opened an Arby's in Akron, Ohio. Early locations carried neon signs shaped like a cowboy hat. The signs often read "Arby's roast beef sandwich is delicious". The Peskin Sign Co. designed them.

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• 3. Menu Inventions

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  During the 1970s, Arby's grew by about 50 stores a year, and the menu grew alongside it. The decade produced the Beef 'n Cheddar, Jamocha Shakes, chicken sandwiches and curly fries. It also produced two signature sauces, Arby's Sauce and Horsey Sauce.

  Baked potatoes joined the menu in 1985. The curly fries went on sale under the name Curly-Q Fries in 1988. In 1991, Arby's became the first fast food restaurant to offer a complete "lite" menu. Several sandwiches and salads came in under 300 calories and were 94 percent fat-free.

  Market Fresh Sandwiches brought a deli style to the chain. The first lineup paired roast beef, turkey or ham with Swiss, and added a Roast Chicken Caesar. Everything except the Chicken Caesar came with spicy brown honey mustard, mayonnaise, red onion rings, green leaf lettuce, tomato slices and sliced Swiss cheese. The Ultimate BLT appeared for a limited time in 2002 and returned in 2012. A Five-Star Club on Harvest White Bread was a limited offer in 2003.

  In 2003, baguette sandwiches arrived, including the Italian Beef 'n Provolone, French Dip 'n Swiss, Philly Beef Supreme and Pot Roast. Corned beef and turkey Reuben sandwiches followed in 2005. In September 2007, Toasted Subs on ciabatta rolls debuted with the French Dip & Swiss, Philly Beef, Classic Italian and Turkey Bacon Club. Three months later, the Meatball and Chicken Parmesan versions joined them.

  Gyros were first offered in 2006. They returned for a limited time in September 2014 and became a permanent fixture in April 2016. A Smokehouse Brisket sandwich arrived in October 2013. Flatbread melts came back almost every year, such as the Philly Cheesesteak and Fajita Beef in 2007 and 2008. A pork-beef meatball sandwich returned in July 2016 after a nine-year hiatus.

  In August 2015, Arby's introduced Sliders, a series of five small sandwiches starting at $1.29. Prices varied by location. Two years earlier, the chain had tried a similar product called Mighty Minis, sold in pairs. Sliders sold 1 million, or a ton, during their first month of national sales.

  Starting in October 2015, sliders, small drinks and small sides cost $1 between 2 and 5 p.m. The aim was to lift sales outside normal meal hours. Nation's Restaurant News gave Arby's its MenuMasters Award for 2016. The Turkey 'n Cheese began as a limited item in December 2016 and proved popular enough to stay. A Pizza Slider followed in May 2017.

  In late August 2016, four chicken sandwiches arrived with a buttermilk-based breaded breast filet. A Smokehouse Pork Belly Sandwich debuted that October. In September 2017, the Chicken Pepperoni Parm became the chain's version of a chicken parmigiana sandwich, with pepperoni slices added.

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• 4. Debts and Owners

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  In 1970, the Raffel family tried to turn Arby's into a public company by selling stock. The offering never went through, because the stock market fell afterward. In February 1971, Arby's filed for reorganization in United States bankruptcy court. Debts from rapid expansion were one cause. A nationwide recession and prices that were high next to rival chains were others.

  In 1976, the family sold the company to RC Cola for $18 million. Leroy Raffel stayed on as CEO until he retired three years later.

  Victor Posner took control in 1984 through a hostile takeover of Arby's then parent, Royal Crown. He used his DWG Corporation to do it.

  By 1993, DWG had a new owner and a new name, Triarc Companies, Inc. Triarc brought in Don Pierce, a former PepsiCo executive, to "resurrect" Arby's. With $100 million in additional funding, Pierce moved in 1996 to a "Roast Town" concept, similar in format to Boston Market. It earned poor marks in market tests and was quickly discontinued. Pierce and his team left. The company then sold all 354 of its company-owned locations to RTM Restaurant Group, an existing Arby's franchisee, for $71 million.

  Another experiment began in 1995 with ZuZu's Handmade Mexican Grill, a dual-brand venture. It failed, and each company filed lawsuits against the other.

  In 2002, Arby's returned to operating restaurants. It bought Sybra Inc., the second largest Arby's franchisee, out of bankruptcy, taking on 293 locations. It outbid RTM so that RTM would not grow too large. On the 25th of July 2005, Arby's bought RTM as well.

  In November 2002, Access Now sued RTM, then a Triarc franchisee. The suit claimed that some 800 of its stores did not comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. It sought no damages beyond lawyer fees. A court accepted a settlement in August 2006. Each year, 100 RTM stores would be retrofitted, at an estimated cost of about $1.2 million annually.

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• 5. Wild Game Season

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  In October 2016, word leaked through social media that Arby's was about to test a venison sandwich. The chain confirmed it. The test ran for four days in 17 stores, spread across Georgia, Michigan, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Wisconsin. All six states are major deer hunting states, and the days were timed to their hunting seasons.

  USA Today published the locations of all 17 restaurants before the promotion began. Curiosity and heavy demand from hunters did the rest. The sandwiches sold out in every market on the first day. A second USA Today article reported that the farm-raised venison was imported from New Zealand.

  On the 21st of October 2017, the venison sandwich returned nationwide, again in limited quantities. That same month, three locations in Colorado, Montana and Wyoming offered an elk sandwich for a limited time. The elk came from the same New Zealand farm that supplied the venison. Many states, Montana among them, prohibit raising game animals on commercial farms.

  The following October, 16 restaurants offered a featured wild game sandwich once more. This time it was a duck breast sandwich topped with a cherry sauce and crispy onions.

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• 6. Rescue and Inspire

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  In 2008, Triarc purchased Wendy's and renamed itself Wendy's/Arby's Group to reflect its two core businesses. In January 2011, the group said it was looking into selling the Arby's side so that it could focus on Wendy's. The former group later became The Wendy's Company.

  On the 13th of June 2011, Wendy's/Arby's Group announced it would sell the majority of Arby's to Roark Capital Group and keep an 18.5% stake. The numbers at the time were grim. Arby's faced an operating loss of $35 million for the year. About 350 franchisees were more than 60 days late on royalty payments. Closures had hit 74 low performing franchised units and 96 company-owned units.

  Still, Arby's reported six months of sales growth at established United States stores, which it credited to a turnaround plan it had just launched. Roark acquired 81.5% in July 2011. The new owners closed more underperforming locations, changed the marketing strategy and introduced new products on a regular basis. After four years, Arby's issued $300 million in dividends. Wendy's received $54.9 million for its minority stake, and Roark received the rest.

  In 2012, Arby's ranked third in systemwide sales in the United States among quick-service and fast-casual restaurants, behind Subway and Panera Bread.

  In February 2017, Arby's investigated a malware attack on its payment system that targeted thousands of customer credit and debit cards. The malware sat on point-of-sale systems in corporate-owned restaurants, not franchisee locations. It was active between the 25th of October 2016 and the 19th of January 2017. Eight credit unions and banks filed suit.

  In November 2017, Arby's announced a $2.4 billion cash purchase of Buffalo Wild Wings. The parent company was renamed from Arby's Restaurant Group, Inc. to Inspire Brands, with Arby's as its flagship. That October, Food & Wine had called Arby's "America's second largest sandwich chain (after Subway)".

  The Buffalo Wild Wings deal cut the Wendy's stake from 18.5% to 12.3%. On the 16th of August 2018, Inspire Brands bought that stake back for $450 million, a 38% premium. Roark Capital Group remains the majority owner.

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• 7. Overseas Ventures

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  By 2019, Arby's had 3,472 restaurants. They stood in every United States state except Rhode Island and Vermont, and in seven other countries: Canada, Costa Rica, Egypt, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, South Korea and Turkey.

  In 1992, Les Franchises P.R.A.G. Inc. opened the first Arby's in the Canadian province of Quebec. It was also the 100th Arby's in Canada. The Quebec location sold poutine, a French-Canadian dish.

  The same year, GSR Restaurant Group opened the first Arby's in Europe, in London. A second location followed in Glasgow the next year. Both had closed by 1994. In 2001, Barown Restaurants tried again with two franchises, in Southampton, Hampshire, and Sutton, London. Both closed after operating only a few months.

  In 2009, Wendy's/Arby's Group signed a franchise deal with the Al Jammaz Group of Saudi Arabia for dual-branded restaurants across the Middle East. The first opened in Dubai in May 2010. A similar deal with Tab Gida Sanayi ve Ticaret covered Turkey in June 2010.

  In 2010, Arby's opened at Ft. Bliss, its first location on an American military base. Only American military personnel and some of their guests can eat at such locations. Others now serve service members at Kadena Air Base and Camp Foster in Okinawa, Japan.

  In September 2017, Kharafi Global returned Arby's to Kuwait with a franchise in Jabriya, the first in two decades. In October 2018, three restaurants opened in Cairo with Vantage Egypt Tourism and Entertainment. In January 2022, an exclusive agreement with Shahia Foods Limited Company brought Arby's to Saudi Arabia, with the first restaurants planned for Riyadh in late 2022.

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• 8. Pepsi, Coke and Records

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  In early 2006, Arby's Restaurant Group signed a contract making Pepsi its exclusive soft drink provider. Franchises with Coca-Cola contracts switched to Pepsi-Cola as those contracts expired.

  In August 2017, Coca-Cola won a contract to serve Coke products at all Arby's restaurants. That ended an association with Pepsi of almost 11 years. The transition began in early 2018, and by the 19th of June 2018, every location served Coca-Cola beverages.

  Arby's promoted the announcement by breaking two Guinness World Records. The first, for the world's smallest advertisement, measured 38.3 microns by 19.2 microns and was printed on a sesame seed at Georgia Tech. The second, for the largest advertising poster, covered about 5 acres in Monowi, Nebraska, America's smallest town.

  Since 2014, Ving Rhames has narrated Arby's commercials. The chain's current slogan is "Arby's, We Have The Meats!"

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