Carl's Jr.

• 1. Introduction

  ›

  Carl's Jr. began in 1941 with $311 borrowed against a Plymouth automobile. A truck driver named Carl Karcher and his wife Margaret added $15 of their own savings. Together that money bought them a hot dog cart. That small purchase is the root of a burger chain that now has restaurants in dozens of countries. How did a single cart grow so large? What happened when the founder and his own board stopped agreeing? And why have the company's commercials been remembered, and argued over, for so long?

  512859

• 2. Cart To Drive-In

  ›

  On the corner of Florence and Central Avenues in Los Angeles, the new cart sold hot dogs, chili dogs, and tamales for a dime. Soda cost a nickel. Within a few years, Carl and Margaret ran four hot dog stands across the city. Carl lived from 1917 to 2008, and Margaret from 1915 to 2006.

  In 1945 the couple moved a short distance to Anaheim, California. There they opened their first full-service restaurant, Carl's Drive-In Barbecue, at 1108 North Palm Street. That road is now called Harbor Boulevard. Hamburgers did not join the menu until 1946.

  The name Carl's Jr. arrived in 1956, when Karcher opened two restaurants in Anaheim and Brea. Each was a smaller version of the drive-in, which explains the name. The first local one stood on Janss Street, next to St. Boniface Catholic Church and about half a block from Anaheim High School. That building later became the church's Bethany Hall.

  By the end of the 1950s, four Carl's Jr. restaurants operated in Orange County. They also gained a new supervisor, Donald F. Karcher, Carl's younger brother. He would later become the company's president.

  5681259

• 3. Growing Up Fast

  ›

  By the 1960s, Carl Karcher was running 24 restaurants in Southern California. The company incorporated in 1966 as Carl Karcher Enterprises, Inc., and launched a major expansion in 1968. To serve customers faster, the menus were trimmed to charbroiled hamburgers, hot dogs, fries, and malts.

  By 1975, more than 100 Carl's Jr. locations dotted Southern California, and the company pushed into the northern part of the state. It built its Anaheim corporate headquarters in 1976. The next year, it became the first quick-service chain to offer salad bars in all 200 of its locations. The first restaurant outside California opened in Las Vegas in 1979, and sales passed $100 million by the end of that decade.

  Not every experiment worked. A Mexican food spin-off called Taco de Carlos ran through the 1970s and early 1980s, and then every unit closed. Karcher later blamed the locations for being too far apart from one another.

  In 1980, the company hired its 10,000th employee, having doubled its workforce in just three years. In 1981, with 300 restaurants open, Carl Karcher Enterprises became a publicly held company. Franchising began in 1984. The menu grew with the Western Bacon Cheeseburger, breakfast items, a charbroiled chicken sandwich line, and self-service soda fountains.

  By the end of the 1980s, sales topped $480 million across 534 restaurants. The first international units opened in the Pacific Rim. Carl's Jr. was also among the first chains to invite customers to pay with ATM cards.

  5812914

• 4. Boardrooms And Buyers

  ›

  The 1st of October 1993 was the day the board of directors removed Carl Karcher as chairman of the company he had built. The fight had been brewing for years. Through the 1990s, Karcher and the board clashed, often in public, over marketing and business practices. One flashpoint was dual branding, in which Carl's Jr. shared space with other chains such as The Green Burrito. Another was the chain's new advertising campaigns.

  Trouble had arrived earlier. In 1988, the Securities and Exchange Commission accused Karcher and his family of insider trading, because they had sold large quantities of stock before the price dropped. Karcher agreed to a settlement and paid more than half a million dollars in fines.

  Geography added strain. The chain struggled in Arizona and Texas, which may have dimmed hopes of spreading to other states. Nevada, Oregon, and Washington later proved more welcoming.

  After the ouster, the board changed course. It cut the menu, lowered prices, and launched a campaign aimed at younger urban and suburban men. Don Karcher had died in 1992, and in 1994 a new management team arrived. It was led by CEO William P. Foley II and by Tom Thompson, the President and Chief Operating Officer. Carl Karcher Enterprises became a wholly owned subsidiary of CKE Restaurants Holdings, Inc.

  In 1997, CKE Restaurants bought Hardee's, a chain with 2500 locations in the Midwest, South, and East Coast. In 2002 it acquired Santa Barbara Restaurant Group, the parent company of the Green Burrito brand. As a result, some Carl's Jr. and Hardee's stores now share a building with Green Burrito. Yum! Brands has used the same strategy with KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, A&W Restaurants, and Long John Silver's. It lets a company grow without paying for new buildings and land.

  In July 2010, an affiliate of Apollo Management VII bought CKE through Columbia Lake Acquisition Holdings, Inc. The company continued as a privately held business. On the 20th of November 2013, Roark Capital Group agreed to acquire CKE from Apollo for between $1.65 billion and $1.75 billion. Under this ownership, CKE runs an annual Stars for Heroes in-store fundraiser at both chains, benefiting U.S. military veterans and their families.

  In September 2017, CKE converted its Hardee's restaurants in Poughkeepsie and Middletown, New York, into Carl's Jr. locations. The goal was to focus on lunch and dinner for Northeastern customers, but both stores have since closed. The company's headquarters had moved in 2003 to a larger building 500 feet north of the original Anaheim site. In 2018 it moved again, this time to Franklin, Tennessee.

  116012817

• 5. Thickburgers And Firsts

  ›

  In 2001, Carl's Jr. introduced its Thickburger line, starting with the half-pound Six Dollar Burger. Sister chain Hardee's followed in 2003. In 2005, the chain began serving hand-scooped ice cream shakes.

  The 2010s brought a run of claims to be first. In 2011, Carl's Jr. and Hardee's began offering Charbroiled Turkey Burgers, becoming the first national fast food chains to do so. That year also saw made-from-scratch biscuits, and the two chains rolled out Hand-Breaded Chicken Tenders during the decade.

  In December 2014, the All-Natural Burger arrived. Its patty was grass-fed, free-range beef with no added hormones, antibiotics, or steroids, and the chain called itself the first major fast-food brand to sell such a patty. The All-Natural Turkey Burger followed in December 2015, billed as another industry first.

  In January 2019, Carl's Jr. added a Beyond Meat patty and rolled it out to every location. It was one of the first large chains to offer a vegan-friendly patty this broadly. Soon after, Burger King and many others added plant-based burgers of their own.

  In mid-March 2020, every restaurant temporarily gave up indoor dining because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Customers could still order through the drive thru, or by pick-up or take-away.

  The menu has also moved backward. In February 2024, Carl's Jr. locations in the Bakersfield, California area permanently dropped the Beyond Burger. As of April 2024, the company had issued no press release explaining why. That same year, Carl's Jr. announced that it sources 100% cage-free eggs for its U.S. locations, following advocacy from animal welfare organizations.

  18195814

• 6. Ads Under Fire

  ›

  "If it doesn't get all over the place, it doesn't belong in your face." That was the slogan of a mid-1990s campaign showing younger people with ketchup and juice dripping from their burgers onto their clothes.

  In January 1997, commercials starring NBA player Dennis Rodman were pulled. He had been fined a then-record $25,000 and suspended for 11 games for kicking a cameraman in the groin during a game in Minneapolis. The commercials returned once his suspension ended. In June of that year, Carl's Jr. pulled them for good. Rodman had been fined a then-record $50,000 for using profanity against Mormons during a game in Salt Lake City.

  In 2005, the company launched a campaign featuring bikini-clad models posing suggestively, aimed at the "hungry, young guy" demographic. Critics said the ads objectified women, and some called for a boycott. CEO Andrew Puzder defended them in Entrepreneur magazine. "I like our ads. I like beautiful women eating burgers in bikinis. I think it's very American."

  That May, the Spicy BBQ Six Dollar Burger debuted in a television ad made by Mendelsohn Zien Advertising and directed by Chris Applebaum. Paris Hilton, in a provocative swimsuit, soaped up a Bentley and crawled across it. She then took a big bite of her burger and said her signature phrase, "That's hot."

  The founder hated it. Carl Karcher died on the 11th of January 2008, at the age of 90. He suffered from Parkinson's disease and was being treated for related pneumonia at St. Jude Medical Center in Fullerton, California. Many Carl's Jr. restaurants flew their flags at half-staff. In his last years, he objected to the sexualized tone of the advertising. He was reported "just heartbroken" that a company he founded on Christian principles had taken such "an amoral act." He had also criticized CKE's campaigns in the 1990s.

  6162581259

• 7. A Change Of Tone

  ›

  In January 2015, Carl's Jr. released an online commercial starring model Charlotte McKinney, to air regionally during Super Bowl XLIX. She strolled through a farmers' market while double entendres suggested she was naked, with strategic items hiding her. The reveal showed her in a bikini, eating the new All Natural Burger. Critics said the ad "sets feminism back four decades." Others enjoyed it, including McKinney's elderly grandfather. By June 2016, the "Au Natural" debut had drawn over 4.5 billion media impressions worldwide and more than 13 million views on the chains' YouTube channel.

  The Hilton ad had already changed how the two chains advertised. Before it, Carl's Jr. and Hardee's mostly kept separate ads. After it, a "Without us, some guys would starve." campaign aired for one brand or the other, depending on region. Stars such as Kate Upton, Kim Kardashian, Emily Ratajkowski, Sara Jean Underwood, Hannah Ferguson, Heidi Klum, Ronda Rousey, Padma Lakshmi, and Hayden Panettiere later appeared in ads. By 2013, the chains sold many common menu items, so Carl's Jr. began advertising nationally alongside Hardee's.

  In March 2017, a new commercial introduced a white-bearded character named Carl Hardee Sr., played by Charles Esten. He returns to the office, to the delight of the employees, looking for his son Carl Jr., played by Drew Tarver. The son has been chasing sex appeal instead of good food. CKE called the ad a turning point. It wanted to move away from provocative advertising and compete on food against Five Guys, Steak 'n Shake, and In-N-Out Burger. The campaign also brought modernized logos for both brands.

  In 2018, CKE announced plans to separate the identities of Hardee's and Carl's Jr. That meant remodeling several Hardee's restaurants and giving each brand its own ad campaigns. The two menus were identical at the time, but CKE said they would slowly diverge, with "some overlap." For Carl's Jr., the new effort was called The Call of Carl's, and it featured the voice of Academy Award-winning actor Matthew McConaughey.

  6364656869

• 8. Beyond America

  ›

  In 2016, Entrepreneur ranked Carl's Jr. No. 54 on its Top Franchise 500 list, which weighs financial strength, stability, and growth rate. As of March 2016, CKE counted 3,664 franchised or company-operated restaurants across Carl's Jr. and Hardee's. They stood in 44 states and 38 foreign countries and territories. Both chains were completely absent from New England.

  Mexico was an early market, entered in 1991. In November 2015, Carl's Jr. opened its 200th restaurant there. In 2011, it tried Canada, starting in Kelowna, British Columbia, and then adding Kamloops, Vernon, and Penticton. Outlets in Chilliwack, Vancouver, and Abbotsford followed, along with a location at Vancouver International Airport. In 2014, two Ontario restaurants opened in Waterloo and Guelph, and two more in Toronto in 2015. By January 2016, all the Ontario locations had shut down, although Western Canada kept going.

  In August 2016, the first Indian restaurant opened at Saket's Select Citywalk Mall in New Delhi. By 2017, the count had risen to 3665 restaurants in 39 foreign countries and territories. The list included Australia, Belarus, Bolivia, Brazil, Cambodia, Chile, China, Colombia, Denmark, France, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Spain, Turkey, and Vietnam. Indonesia closed in December 2023 and reopened in July 2024 under new management. The Philippines and Thailand once hosted restaurants but no longer do.

  In August 2021, Carl's Jr. announced a master franchise agreement with Nevada Russia Franchising Company LLC to develop over 300 more restaurants in Russia. After the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the chain continued operating there. In August 2022, it arrived in Argentina, planning seven locations and aiming at the gourmet burger market. In May 2024, the Boparan Restaurant Group announced a master license agreement to bring the chain to the United Kingdom.

  Australia went the other way. In July 2024, the master franchisee went into voluntary administration, and 20 company-owned restaurants closed immediately. Four company stores and 25 independent stores kept operating, and KPMG was appointed administrator. Suspected causes included reduced discretionary spending, rising costs, and over-eager expansion into remote places amid a crowded market. In November 2024, creditors voted to liquidate the operator, while CKE said it remained committed to Australia.

  2122234445