Carrols Restaurant Group

Carrols Restaurant Group, Inc.
Public
Traded as NASDAQ: TAST
Russell 2000 Component
Industry Restaurants (SIC code 5812)
Founded 1960[1]
Founder Herbert N. Slotnik[1]
Headquarters Syracuse, New York, U.S.
Number of locations
 800 O&O; 30 franchised[2]
Area served
 United States, Puerto Rico, Ecuador[2]
Key people
 Dan Accordino, CEO
Products Burger King (franchisee)
Revenue US$816.1 million (Fiscal year 2009)[3]
US$20 million (FY 2009)[3]
US$21.8 million (FY 2009)[3]
Total assets US$440 million[3]
Number of employees
 over 10,000[1]
Website www.carrols.com

Carrols Restaurant Group is an American franchisee company and is the largest Burger King franchisee in the world; Carrols owns and operates over 800+[4] Burger King locations across 20 U.S. states.

The company used to own the restaurant chains Pollo Tropical, Taco Cabana, and Carrols. The original Carrols chain ceased operations in the United States in the mid-1970s. The last unaffiliated Carrols Restaurants existed in Finland. The chain was eventually bought out by another Finnish fast-food chain, Hesburger. In 2012, Hesburger announced that the brand Carrols would be discontinued; the last Carrols (in Oulunkylä) was renamed Hesburger on May 29.

History

An offshoot of the Tastee-Freez company, it was named for the daughter of Tastee-Freez co-owner Leo Marantz, Carol.[5][6]

Herb Slotnick bought the franchise rights for the New York area and started opening restaurants in the Syracuse, New York area in the early 1960s. They expanded over the years throughout New York State. During the 1960s, a yellow slug character served as Carrols' first mascot, replaced in 1974 by a young blonde boy wearing a tweed suit and a Fedora hat.

Most Carrols restaurant locations were converted to Burger King franchises in 1975, with less profitable stores shuttered. After the conversion, the Carrols brand was only found overseas in Finland, Sweden, Estonia, Latvia and Russia -- except for a two stores: one on Roosevelt Avenue in Carteret, N.J, which closed in the late 1970s; and a single franchisee-owned store in Batavia, New York. Both of these latter two stores operated under the Carrols name into the 1980s, before closing.

The Finnish group Carrols opened up several locations in St. Petersburg, Russia in the mid-to-late 1990s. In 1998 it opened its first operation in Moscow located at 'then' the new Ohotni Riad Mall. Because of the Financial Crisis of 1998, the operations did not generate enough sales for Carrols, and by 2000 all Carrols outlets in Russia were closed.

The Finnish restaurant company Hesburger started to buy out the last existing Carrol's locations in Helsinki, Finland in the mid-2000s.

On December 9, 2005, Carrols Holdings and Mimi's Café was filed for offerings.[7]

In February 2011 the company announced it was divesting itself of its two Spanish-themed chains, Taco Cabana and Pollo Tropical, in a spin-off aimed at helping the company focus on its core Burger King operations.[8] The sale of the two chains, collectively called the Fiesta Restaurant Group, was completed in May 2012.[9]

Burger King

In June 2012, Carrols acquired 278 Burger King locations from Burger King for approximately $150 million. In exchange, the Burger King parent, Burger King Corporation took a 28.9% stake in the company. The transaction involved a line of credit that would be used by Carrols to renovate more than 450 of its stores.[9]

Theaters

Beginning in the early 1970s, Carrols owned and operated the CinemaNational movie theater chain, until their sale to Mid-States Theaters and USA Cinemas in the early and mid-1980s. The theaters were concentrated in central New York State, but there were locations as far away as Wisconsin, Idaho and California. The chain consisted mostly of large single-screen locations that had been purchased from companies like Kallet, Hallmark and Dipson Theaters, along with new locations that were built by Slotnick. CinemaNational also built some triple-screen multiplex locations in sites like the Penn-Can Mall in Cicero, New York, and the Fayetteville Mall in Fayetteville.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "History". Carrols Restaurant Group, Inc. Retrieved 2008-02-21.
  2. 1 2 "Carrols Restaurant Group - Corporate Profile". Carrols Restaurant Group, Inc. Retrieved 2008-02-21.
  3. 1 2 3 4 "Carrols Restaurant Group 2009 10-K" (PDF). 24 April 2010. pp. 135–140. Retrieved 26 February 2011.
  4. ↑ Carrols Restaurant Group Investor Relations page (Retrieved 05 April 2018)
  5. ↑ "Marantz residence" (PDF).
  6. ↑ Kirst, Sean (6 April 2010). "Remembering Carrols: Serving up a fast-food flashback". Syracuse Post-Standard.
  7. ↑ "Restaurant Backers Charge To Public Markets".
  8. ↑ Bhattacharjee, Nivedita; Takle, Abhishek (24 February 2011). "Carrols to spin off Taco Cabana". Reuters. Retrieved 26 February 2011.
  9. 1 2 Frumkin, Paul (14 June 2012). "Carrols completes acquisition of 278 Burger King units". Nation's Restaurant News. Retrieved 13 June 2012.
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