Arthur Treacher's

Infobox Company
company_name = Arthur Treacher's Fish and Chips
company_logo =
company_type = subsidiary of TruFoods Systems, Inc
foundation = 1969
location = New York, New York
industry = Restaurant
products = Seafood
revenue = $ (Gross 2005)
operating_income = $ (2005)
net_income = $ (2005)
num_employees = (world wide)
homepage = http://www.arthurtreachers.com/

Arthur Treacher's Fish and Chips is a fast food seafood restaurant chain.
As of 2008, there were 45 stores in 8 northern states (plus one in Grand Cayman) which serve fish and chips. Its main competitors are Long John Silver's and Captain D's.

History

The chain was named for Arthur Treacher (1894 - 1975), an English character actor who was known as "the perfect butler" for his performances as Jeeves, as a butler in several Shirley Temple films, and the role of Constable Jones in "Mary Poppins". He served as a spokesman for the restaurant chain in its early years, underscoring the British character of its food.

Origins

The world's first convenience food was fish and chips. Malin's of Bow, an enterprising restaurant in London, England began wrapping fried whitefish filets in newspaper for customers to take with them. That was in 1865. Over one hundred years later, Arthur Treacher's Inc. purchased Malin's of Bow and opened the first Arthur Treacher's restaurant. The location was Columbus, Ohio and the year was 1969. [ [http://www.arthurtreachers.com/about-at.htm Arthur Treacher's website: Background & History] ]

Franchising

The franchise company was started in 1969 as National Fast Food Corp. National Fast Food's principals at the time included S. Robert Davis, a real estate developer who built and leased several Colonel Sanders Kentucky Fried Chicken properties, his friend Dave Thomas, who sold his Colonel Sanders franchises back to that company for $3,000,000 and went on to found Wendy's, and L. S. Hartzog, who at the time ran a chain of bakeries selling biscuits to Colonel Sanders franchisees nationally.

Fisher Foods involvement

In 1970, Fisher Foods swapped capital with and licensed franchises from National, with a total of 550 franchises sold (106 to Fisher alone), but only 99 stores were actually in operation. Apparently the time was ripe for the fish franchise concept: Long John Silver's, Captain D's, Skipper's and H. Salt Esquire all started about the same time. Aided by Arthur Treacher's advertisements, these companies introduced British fish and chips to America.

Arthur Treacher's and Long John Silver's expanded to become the largest purveyors of fish and chips in the late 1970s. By 1979, Arthur Treacher's had about 800 stores.

Arthur Treacher's Fish and Chips once had over 950 locations throughout the United States. During the years of high growth, customers would line up for hours to eat in the 27-50 seat restaurants with about 50% of the business as take out.Fact|date=October 2007

Impact of the 'cod wars'

In 1981, Britain and Iceland almost got into a war over fishing rights, and when they implemented the 200-mile (370 km) fishing limit it was called the "cod wars." Cod prices went from the low $2 range to the mid-$3 range, which sent the low-priced fish restaurants into a tailspin, and all the companies retrenched.

Mrs. Paul's Seafood

Since the 1970's, Treacher's had been owned by Orange Co., a public company that was primarily in the orange futures trading business. It was sold at that time to Mrs. Paul's Seafood. They immediately replaced the Icelandic codfish with pollock, which was cheaper, although thought to be generally inferior in quality.

Investor group

The company was subsequently bought by a group of investors and the corporate offices were relocated to Youngstown, Ohio. The company went into bankruptcy in 1983, and emerged again in 1985. It was merged into a shell company by Jim Cataland.

From 1985 to 1993, Cataland started to grow the company again, albeit very slowly, followed in 1993 by an investment in the company by a group of investors. The investment was going to be used to bring out a new, more modern, and updated seafood concept. The money was used to buy a large number of stores and move the company from its base operations in Youngstown, Ohio to Jacksonville, Florida.

New Strategy

The company was acquired by PAT Franchise Systems, a wholly owned subsidiary of TruFoods Systems, Inc in 2002. Nathan's Famous bought the exclusive rights to market the Arthur Treacher's trademark and sell their products co-branded with Nathan's own concepts Kenny Rogers Roasters and Miami Subs in 2006; however, PAT Franchise Systems has a license agreement with NF Treachers to sell Arthur Treacher's Fish and Chips franchises in eight states.

The proceeds from this sale were then used to form ATCO, which specializes in manufacturing computer chips and electronics.

ee also

*Fish and chips
*Hushpuppy

References

External links

* [http://www.arthurtreachers.com/ Arthur Treacher's Homepage]