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Arby's is a fast food restaurant chain in the United States and Canada that is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Wendy's/Arby's Group. It is primarily known for selling roast beef sandwiches and curly fries. The company's target market attempts to be more adult-oriented than other fast food restaurants. The Arby's menu also includes chicken sandwiches, appetizers, salads, Market Fresh (deli-style) sandwiches, wraps, and submarine sandwiches. There are 3,688 Arby’s restaurants in the United States and Canada. As of December 30, 2007, there were 1,106 stores-owned by corporate and 2,582 Arby’s restaurants owned by 462 franchisees. Of the franchisee-owned restaurants, 2,458 operate within the United States and 124 are outside the United States, principally in Canada. It owns the franchise T.J. Cinnamons that as of December 2007, has 243 locations with 225 multi-branded with company stores. They also have six multi-branded Pasta Connections. They are currently only franchising the T.J. Cinnamons brand.[2] In 1993, Arby's opened a new "prototype" restaurant in Colonial Heights, VA which featured the regular Arby's menu, plus Mexican, rotisserie chicken/vegetable, and Eskimo Pie lines. It, along with the other "prototype" in the West End of Richmond, VA, is the biggest Arby's in the world. They both feature the expansive menus and have elegant interior design and spacious seating and expansive ceilings.
[edit] HistoryArby's was founded in Youngstown, Ohio in 1964 by Forrest and Leroy Raffel, owners of a restaurant equipment business who believed there was a market opportunity for a fast food franchise based on a food other than hamburgers. The brothers wanted to call their restaurants "Big Tex," but that name was being used by an Akron business. Instead, they chose the name "Arby's," based on R.B., the initials of Raffel Brothers (and the initials for "Roast Beef").[5] The Raffel brothers opened the first new restaurant in Boardman, Ohio, just outside of Youngstown, on July 23, 1964. They initially served only roast beef sandwiches, potato chips and drinks. A year later, the first Arby's licensee opened a restaurant in Akron, Ohio. The famous Arby's "hat" was designed by the original signmakers, Peskin Sign Co.[6] (it continues to make signs for Wendy's/Arby's Group). Expansion to other states began in 1968, beginning in Pittsburgh (the closest large out-of-state market to Youngstown) and Detroit. The restaurants were initially designed to be more upscale than their hamburger competitors. During the 1970s, the expansion of Arby's took place at a rate of 50 stores per year. During this time it created several menu items, including the Beef ‘n Cheddar, jamocha shakes, curly fries and two signature sauces: Arby’s BBQ sauce and horsey sauce. By 1981 it added chicken along with opening store number 1,000. It became the first restaurant in the fast food industry to offer a complete "lite" menu in 1991 with several sandwiches and salads under 300 calories and ninety four percent fat free.[5] In 1993 Arby's was purchased by Triarc companies. This resulted in further changes with the market fresh lineup being introduced in 2001 that included deli style sandwiches and salads. A further expansion of the line occurred with wraps introduced in 2003. This was further expanded in 2007 with the toasted sub line.[5] On May 31, 2005, Triarc announced that it was purchasing RTM[7] and would move their headquarters from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to Sandy Springs, Georgia. Later that year, Triarc officially bought out RTM. After the buyout the restaurants that were owned by RTM and Triarc were reorganized under the name ARG (Arby's Restaurant Group). Most of the primary leadership of RTM was retained by ARG in either their former role, or as consultants.[5] Arby's is currently franchised by Wendy's/Arby's Group, which also franchises T.J. Cinnamons and Pasta Connection and once owned Royal Crown Cola (better known as R.C. Cola), which Arby's sold into the mid-1990s. At the time, this made Arby's one of the only major restaurant chains to sell a soft drink product other than Pepsi or Coca-Cola, with Pepsi itself at the time being mostly relegated to the three restaurants then-owned by Pepsi (KFC, Taco Bell, and Pizza Hut), Subway, and a small handful of sit-down restaurants. On April 24, 2008, Wendy's announced that it would sell itself to Triarc. According to the New York Times, the stock swap will go for $2.3 billion.[8] Triarc plans to change its corporate name to include the Wendy's name. The headquarters of both Wendy's in Dublin and Arby's in Atlanta will stay in place with Wendy's/Arby's Group, Inc as the new corporate name and headquarters was also left in Atlanta.[5] Triarc and its Arby's franchise subsidiary, Arby's Restaurant Group, are the largest owners of Arby's franchises. With the 2007 Annual Report, ARG plans on opening 50 new stores for themselves on top of the over 300 franchise locations that are currently opening, proposed, or under development by franchises.[2] While the restaurant has not been based in the Youngstown area for many years, the chain still has a major presence in the area, including a location on the campus of Youngstown State University as well as numerous sponsorship deals and events within the area. Today the Youngstown market serves as a test market for several products, including breakfast (only available at select locations) and the Roastburger lineup that was introduced in the area in November 2008, three months before its national roll-out. The nearby Pittsburgh area is also a major market for Arby's, where for decades was the only overlapping area with Northeastern fast-food chain Roy Rogers. Until Hardee's unsuccessful purchase of Roy Rogers in 1990, Arby's had a very minimal presence in the Baltimore/Washington, D.C. area due to Roy Rogers fans supposedly preferring the taste of Roy Rogers roast beef over Arby's.[citation needed] However, since Roy Rogers' rapid decline after the Hardee's takeover (the two restaurants were separated when their parent company at the time, Imasco, sold Hardee's to Carl's Jr. in 1997), Arby's has since expanded their presence in these markets. Similarly, the St. Louis area does not have success compared to other Midwestern markets, due to the local Lion's Choice chain being the preferred roast beef sandwich there.[citation needed] [edit] AdvertisingThe chain adopted an experimental mascot in the early 2000s, in addition to the cowboy hat, which was an anthropomorphic oven mitt, who appeared on the company's television commercials and print advertisements. He was voiced by actor Tom Arnold. Arby's is currently sponsoring Matt Kenseth, a NASCAR driver, who was also featured in a television commercial for the company. In accordance with this sponsorship, Arby's has promised to give away free medium curly fries on the Monday following any of his race wins. Customers need only bring in an official race result from a newspaper or website.[9]  Arby's is also the sponsor of heavy metal drummer Vinnie-Paul Abbott, who appeared in a series of Internet adverts in early 2009. The adverts showed Vinnie-Paul attempting to sell his 'goddamn electric' oven via e-bay with the slogan "Big Vin and Arby's - HELLYEAH". Arby's currently uses the slogan "I'm thinking Arby's." In April 2008, it launched a new advertising campaign that features the Arby's Rescue Brigade, a group of Arby's enthusiasts whose sole mission is to "save the world from ordinary fast food." The Brigade, which is led by Captain John Maddox, travels around the country in a Rescue Mobile to save anyone who is eating bland, unsatisfying fast food. In conjunction with the campaign, Arby's launched a video contest to recruit a new member to join the Brigade. Prizes included a starring role as the newest Brigade member in an upcoming Arby's commercial and free Arby's food for a year. The contest ran on its website from April 28 through June 30, 2008. [edit] Products
In February 2006, Arby's became the first national fast food chain to claim to not use any artificial additives in its chicken products; along with this claim came an advertising campaign which criticized Wendy's, McDonald's and Burger King for their use of additives such as water, salt and phosphates in their chicken products. In November 2006, Arby's announced that they were eliminating all trans-fats from their menu, to be implemented by May 2007, being the first major fast-food restaurant to do so. However, as of December 2007, Arby's online nutritional guide shows that small amounts of trans-fat can still be found in some of their products.[10] In early 2006, Arby's Restaurant Group (ARG) signed a contract with Pepsi, making Pepsi the chain's exclusive soft drink provider. When franchisees' contracts expire with Coca-Cola, they will be required to switch to Pepsi-Cola,[11] the lone exception being the aforementioned Arby's located at YSU because the University has its own separate contract with Coca-Cola for other university purposes, particularly the athletic department. [edit] Sandwiches 
[edit] Other products
[edit] Breakfast
[edit] BeveragesPepsiCo is the primary provider of beverages: Pepsi, Diet Pepsi, Mountain Dew, Dr Pepper, Sierra Mist, Fresh Brewed Iced Tea, and Tropicana Sugar Free Lemonade. At some stores they also offer Diet Mountain Dew, Lipton Raspberry Ice Tea, Diet Dr Pepper, SOBE Energy Drink and Wild Cherry Pepsi among several other optional choices.
Options in some regions also include Homestyle Fries, Potato Cakes, Pepper Jack Melt, and TJ Cinnamons. Potato Cakes have recently been placed as a local store marketing option which is identical to the breakfast lineup. [edit] TrademarksLike many companies they own several trademarks for their products. These include Arby’s, Arby’s Market Fresh, Market Fresh, Horsey Sauce and Sidekickers.[2] The name Arby's was first used in 1964 but was officially registered in 1970. [edit] Legal issuesIn November 2002, Access Now filed a lawsuit against RTM, then a franchise of TriArc, that some 800 of their stores did not comply with ADA. The lawsuit had no liability damages except for lawyer fees. In August 2006, the court accepted the settlement between RTM and Access Now. The result is every year 100 of the RTM stores are retrofitted to comply with ADA. Accordingly it is estimated that about $1.2 million will be spent to retrofit those stores each year.[2] [edit] FoundationAs with many companies Arby's created a foundation to support the communities they provide service in 1986. The foundation is the Arby's Foundation. It selected the national Big Brother, Big Sisters of America as its chief charity. Part of the foundations work involves the national Arby's Charity Tour which has raised $21 million at amateur golf tournaments since 1996. This work along with the 2,500 stores donations make the foundation over $25 million to donate to Big Brothers Big Sisters.[12] [edit] References
[edit] External links
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