The burger company was founded by David Edgerton and James Mclamore in the year 1954 when they saw the need to expand the stores that were started by Keith Kramer and the wife’s uncle in Jacksonville. By 1967, they were already the second best selling company after the McDonalds, which came first. The history of Burger King is one that brought forth the business of fast foods that are currently one of the best selling enterprises in the world. They became the first people to offer the dining room which also brought more customers into their business.
By 1957 they had expanded their business and were already including the whopper which was a special burger that brought more customers into their business. By this time, the prices were relatively low as they were still trying to get more customers to purchase their products; a burger cost eighteen cents while a whopper cost thirty seven cents.
In 1959, they expanded their market beyond Florida and were now making more income as there were more customers from other states and this is also a big step that helped internationalize their business that was then catching up. They also started advertising their business on television and radio stations that also made them get customers beyond the borders of Florida. By 1961, the Burger King and the special one called whopper were already known in the United States of America and most people had already tasted the burgers and the number of customers had also grown.
By 1967, the Pillsbury Company bought Burger King Corporation for eighteen million dollars and made to grow to become the second largest chain store that provided burgers behind the McDonald Company, which was still very strong due to the large capital base they had and the familiarity they had to their customers.
During the market wars between Coke and Pepsi in the year 1970, there was also a battle for supremacy between the McDonald Company and the Burger King Corporation which was now growing at a very fast rate. This is also the period in which the battle that saw ABC beat NBC and CBS to become the most popular television station by then. In 1978, the Burger King Corporation poached the main executive director of the McDonald Company into their company, and this saw them being able to agree on how the franchise will be made between the two companies.
This forced the Burger King Company to reach out to children who they saw also as a potential source of a large market that would use to counter the McDonald company that had already dominated the adult market. Norman Brinker became the person who made what was known as the Burger Wars to be experienced in the United States during that period. He had been brought into Pillsbury during the time when they bought the company from McLamore and Edgerton, who were the initial owners of the company but sold it off to Pillsbury.
Brinker worked for a short time in the company and left to build his own restaurant. The absence of Brinker left the company in decline. Later on, the company changed the supplier of its soft drinks from Pepsi to Coca-cola and this also made more customers come for their burgers since most customers already preferred Coke to Pepsi.
In 1992, the company’s main headquarter in Miami was destroyed by hurricane but was later made to be operation in the year 1997. In 1997, they also formed a partnership with Guinness to form Diageo, which also made the company to decline since they mostly concentrated on the alcoholic drinks leaving the burger.
The company continued to decline until it was bought by Goldman Sachs and Bain Capital for 1.5billion dollars and an IPO was launched in 2006 which generated $425 million in revenue. Since that time the company continued to grow up to when it had a worth of $3.2 billion in 2010. This journey has made the Burger King to be the business models of today.
