Misplaced Pages

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 75.94.4.176 (talk) at 04:18, 6 December 2013. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Chick-fil-A, Inc.

Company type	Private
Industry	Restaurants
Founded	Atlanta, Georgia, United States
Headquarters	College Park, Georgia, United States
Number of locations	1,600
Key people	Dan T. Cathy, Chairman, CEO S. Truett Cathy chairman emeritus
Products	Sandwiches, chicken entrées
Revenue	US$4.0 billion (2011)
Website	chick-fil-a.com

Chick-fil-A is an American fast food restaurant chain headquartered in the Atlanta suburb of College Park, Georgia, specializing in chicken sandwiches. Founded in 1946, it has been associated with the Southern United States, where it has become a cultural icon. Chick-fil-A has over 1,700 restaurants in 38 U.S. states and the District of Columbia, and is focusing future growth in the American Midwest, the Philippines, South Korea, Alberta, and Southern California.

History

The chain's origin can be traced to the Dwarf Grill (now the Dwarf House, see below), a restaurant opened by S. Truett Cathy, the chain's current Chairman and CEO, in 1946. The restaurant is located in Hapeville, Georgia, a suburb of Atlanta, and is near the location of the now-demolished Ford Motor Company Atlanta Assembly Plant, for many years a source of many of the restaurant's patrons.

In 1961, after 15 years in the fast food business, Cathy found a pressure-fryer that could cook the chicken sandwich in the same amount of time it took to cook a fast-food hamburger. Following this discovery, he registered the name Chick-fil-A, Inc. The company's current trademarked slogan, "We Didn't Invent the Chicken, Just the Chicken Sandwich," refers to their flagship menu-item, the Chick-fil-A chicken sandwich.

The first Chick-fil-A opened in 1967 in the food court of the Greenbriar Mall, in a suburb of Atlanta. During the 1970s and early 1980s, the chain expanded by opening new franchises in suburban malls' food courts. The first freestanding franchise was opened in 1986 and the company began to focus more on this type of franchise than on the food court type. Although it has expanded outward from its original geographic base, most new restaurants are located in Southern suburban areas. As of 2012, the chain has approximately 1000 stand-alone locations. It also has 32 drive-through-only locations. Chick-fil-A also can be found at universities, hospitals, and airports through licensing agreements.

Since 1994, the Atlanta-based company has been the title sponsor of the Peach Bowl, an annual college football bowl game played in Atlanta on New Year's Eve. Beginning in the 2006 season, the Peach Bowl became the Chick-fil-A Bowl. Chick-fil-A also is a key sponsor of the SEC and the ACC of college athletics.

Business model

Chick-fil-A uses a model significantly different from other restaurant franchises, notably in retaining ownership of each restaurant. Chick-fil-A selects the restaurant location, builds it and retains ownership. Whereas franchisees from competing chains pay almost $2 million up front to open a franchise, Chick-fil-A franchisees need only a $5,000 initial investment to become an operator. The company gets 10,000–25,000 applications from potential franchise operators for 60–70 slots they open each year. Chick-fil-A gets a larger share of revenue from its franchises than other chains, but the formula works well for operators – franchisees make an average of $190,000 per year. In 2010 Chick-fil-A took the industry lead in average sales per restaurant, making an average of $2.7 million per restaurant in 2010 (McDonald's was second with $2.4 million per restaurant).

Advertising

"Eat mor chikin" is the chain's most prominent advertising slogan, created by the The Richards Group in 1995. The slogan is often seen in advertisements, featuring cows that are often seen wearing (or holding) signs that read: "Eat mor chikin" in all capital letters. According to Chick-fil-A's advertising strategies, the cows have united in an effort to reform American food, in an effort to reduce the amount of beef that is eaten. They wish the American public to refrain from eating beef burgers, common at Chick-fil-A's competitors, such as McDonald's, Burger King, and Wendy's, and instead focus on eating chicken. The ad campaign was temporarily halted during a mad cow disease scare on January 1, 2004 so as not to make the chain seem insensitive or appear to be taking advantage of the scare to increase its sales. Two months later, the cows were put up again. The cows replaced the chain's old mascot, Doodles, an anthropomorphized chicken who still appears as the C on the logo.

Chick-fil-A vigorously protects its intellectual property, sending cease and desist letters to those they think have infringed on their trademarks. The corporation has successfully protested at least 30 instances of the use of an "eat more" phrase, saying that the use would cause confusion of the public, dilute the distinctiveness of their intellectual property, and diminish its value. A 2011 letter to Vermont artist Bo Muller-Moore who screen prints t-shirts reading: "Eat More Kale" demanded that he cease printing the shirts and turn over his website. The incident has drawn criticism from Vermont governor Peter Shumlin, and has created backlash against what he termed Chick-fil-A's "corporate bullying."

Sponsored events

Chick-fil-A Classic

The Chick-fil-A Classic is a high school basketball tournament held in Columbia, South Carolina. The tournament is in its eighth year of operation, and features nationally ranked players, and teams. The tournament is co-sponsored by the Greater Columbia Educational Advancement Foundation (GCEAF), which provides scholarships to high school seniors in the greater Columbia area.

Chick-fil-A Bowl

Formerly known as the Peach Bowl, the Chick-fil-A Bowl is a college football bowl game played each year in Atlanta, Georgia between teams from the Atlantic Coast Conference, and the Southeastern Conference.

Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game

The Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game is an annual early-season college football game played at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, Georgia. It features two highly ranked teams, one of which has always been from the Southeastern Conference. Starting with the 2012 season, the event will be expanded to two games.

Chick-fil-A Kyle Petty Charity Ride Across America

The Chick-fil-A Kyle Petty Charity Ride Across America is an annual charity motorcycle tour to raise money for, among other charities, the Victory Junction Gang Camp for terminally ill children.

Related restaurants

The Hapeville Dwarf House

Truett Cathy opened his first restaurant, The Dwarf Grill – later renamed the Dwarf House – in Hapeville, Georgia, in 1946, and developed the pressure-cooked chicken breast sandwich there. At the original Chick-fil-A Dwarf Grill, in addition to the full-size entrances, there is also an extra small-sized front door. The original Dwarf House in Hapeville, Georgia is open 24 hours a day, six days a week, except on Sundays. The store closes at 11:30 p.m. on Saturday nights and reopens at 6 a.m. on Monday mornings. It has a larger dine-in menu than the other Dwarf House locations as well as an animated seven dwarfs display in the back of the restaurant.

Dwarf House

Truett's original, full-service restaurants offer an extensive menu, and provide customers a choice of table service, walk-up counter service or a drive-thru window. Eleven Chick-fil-A Dwarf House restaurants currently operate in the metro Atlanta area.

Truett's Grill

In 1996, the first Truett's Grill was opened in Morrow, Georgia. The second location opened in 2003 in McDonough, Georgia, and a third location opened in 2006 in Griffin, Georgia. Similar to the Chick-fil-A Dwarf Houses, these independently owned restaurants offer traditional, sit-down dining and expanded menu selections in a diner-themed atmosphere. One major difference from other Chick-fil-A restaurants, however, is the fact that beef products are served there, including steaks and hamburgers.

Corporate culture

S. Truett Cathy is a devout Southern Baptist; his beliefs are also responsible for one of the chain's distinctive features: All Chick-fil-A locations are closed on Sundays, as well as on Thanksgiving, and Christmas. Cathy states as the final step in his Five-Step recipe for Business Success "I was not so committed to financial success that I was willing to abandon my principles and priorities. One of the most visible examples of this is our decision to close on Sunday. Our decision to close on Sunday was our way of honoring God and of directing our attention to things that mattered more than our business."

In an interview with ABC News's Nightline, Truett's son Dan T. Cathy told reporter Vicki Mabrey that the company is also closed on Sundays because "by the time Sunday came, he was just worn out. And Sunday was not a big trading day, anyway, at the time. So he was closed that first Sunday and we've been closed ever since. He figured if he didn't like working on Sundays, that other people didn't either." The younger Cathy also quoted his father as saying, "I don't want to ask people to do that what I am not willing to do myself."

Lawsuit over cancer risk

In 2006 a lawsuit was brought by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine against McDonald's, Applebee's, Outback Steakhouse, Chili's, T.G.I. Friday's, Burger King, and Chick-fil-A. The organization asserted that cooking certain meats, including chicken, at high temperatures causes the formation of a heterocyclic amine called PhIP, a compound which has been shown to cause cancer in lab rats and mice. A 2009 ruling for the defendants was followed by an August 2010 appeal decided in favor of the plaintiffs. The matter has not been fully resolved, and is still before the courts of California.

External links

• Chick-fil-A

• Atlanta
• Companies
• Food

1. ^ Norman, Jan (August 11, 2012). "Franchises Can Expect Fallout". The Orange County Register. p. Business 2.
2. http://www.ajc.com/news/business/dan-cathy-named-ceo-of-chick-fil-a/nbkd9/
3. The pronounced name, in part, refers to one American English pronunciation of "fillet".
4. ^ "Company Fact Sheet". Retrieved July 30, 2012. "Headquarters Chick-fil-A, Inc. 5200 Buffington Road Atlanta, GA 30349-2998"
5. "City Maps City of College Park". Retrieved May 25, 2009. (Archive)
6. Green, Frank (December 7, 2006). "Food is family's matter | The San Diego Union-Tribune". Utsandiego.com. Retrieved August 17, 2012.
7. "Chick-fil-A Celebrates 1,500th Restaurant Location, Continued Sales Growth in 2010", Chick-fil-A press release, August 2010 full text
8. Nickerson, Michelle (2011). Sunbelt Rising: The Politics of Place, Space, and Region. University of Pennsylvania Press. p. 295. Retrieved November 1, 2011. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
9. "We Didn't Invent the Chicken, Just the Chicken Sandwich". Detailed trademark information from the official US federal trademark database (USPTO). Trademark.Markify.Com. Retrieved November 1, 2011.
10. Darren Grem, "The World of Chick-Fil-A and the Business of Sunbelt Evangelicalism," Southern Spaces, March 8, 2012. http://www.southernspaces.org/2012/world-chick-fil-and-business-sunbelt-evangelicalism
11. Marilyn Odesser-Torpey. "Reaching Out to NASCAR Nation". QSR.
12. "Chick-fil-A, Dr Pepper Give Fans a Million Reasons to 'Eat Mor Chikin'". SEC Sports News.
13. Russell Grantham (December 28, 2011). Chick-fil-A model helps it lead "Chick-fil-A model helps it lead". ajc.com. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Retrieved July 29, 2012. {{cite news}}: Check |url= value (help)
14. Joe Guy Collier (July 9, 2008). "Dress-as-a-cow day reflects Chick-fil-A's 'have fun' culture". The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
15. Ring, Wilson (November 28, 2011). "Eat more kale: A David vs. Goliath fight with Chick-fil-A?". The Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved December 4, 2011.
16. Carapezza, Kirk (December 2, 2011). "In Vermont, Fighting For The Rights To 'Eat More'". Vermont Public Radio. Retrieved December 4, 2011.
17. Bidgood, Jess (December 4, 2011). "Chicken Chain Says Stop, but T-Shirt Maker Balks". The New York Times.
18. "Welcome to 8th Annual Chick-Fil-A Classic.com". Chick-fil-aclassic.com. Retrieved June 18, 2010.
19. "GCEAF". Chick-Fil-A Classic. Retrieved June 18, 2010.
20. ^ Bovino, Arthur. "Sandwich of the Week: Dwarf House Chick-fil-A, The Dwarf House in Atlanta – the original Chick-fil-A". The Daily Meal. Retrieved November 3, 2011.
21. "Truett's Grill". Truettsgrill.com. Retrieved June 18, 2010.
22. "Chick-fil-A: Truett's Grill – Griffin". Cfarestaurant.com. Retrieved June 18, 2010.
23. "Chick-fil-A: Truett's Grill – McDonough". Cfarestaurant.com. Retrieved June 18, 2010.
24. "Chick-fil-A: Truett's Grill – Morrow". Cfarestaurant.com. Retrieved June 18, 2010.
25. "Chick-fil-A's Closed-on-Sunday Policy" (PDF) (Press release). Chick-fil-A. 2009. Retrieved July 29, 2012.
26. "Chick-fil-A". Chick-fil-A. Retrieved June 18, 2010.
27. About Truett. S. Truett Cathy. Retrieved May 26, 2009.
28. "Nightline(ABC-TV) presents: Chik-fil-A Wins Customers ... by closing". ABC News. September 23, 2009. Retrieved September 19, 2010.
29. "PCRM Files Lawsuit Over Carcinogens in Grilled Chicken". PCRM. Retrieved November 3, 2011.
30. "Chemicals in Meat Cooked at High Temperatures and Cancer Risk". National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health. Retrieved November 3, 2011.
31. ^ P. J. Hufstutter (August 13, 2010). "In cancer-warning fight, court rules against California restaurants". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved October 27, 2011.
32. "Grilled Chicken Can Cause Cancer; Plaintiff's Claim Requiring Restaurant to Warn Consumers Moves Forward". Taft Law (Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP). Retrieved November 3, 2011.

• Chick-fil-A
• Companies based in Fulton County, Georgia
• Fast-food chains of the United States
• Fast-food poultry restaurants
• Hapeville, Georgia
• Privately held companies based in Georgia (U.S. state)
• Restaurants established in 1946
• 1946 establishments in Georgia (U.S. state)