Hungry Jack's

Infobox company
company_
company_name = Hungry Jack's
parent = Hungry Jack's Pty. Ltd
owner = Competitive Foods Australia
company_type = wholly owned subsidiary; exclusive Australian franchisee of Burger King
company_slogan = The burgers are better at Hungry Jack's
foundation = 1971 in Perth
founder = Jack Cowin (Hungry Jack's) James McLamore and David Edgerton (Burger King)
location = 1A Garden Office Park 355 Scarborough Beach Rd. Osborne Park 6017 WA
key_people = Jack Cowin
industry = Restaurants
num_employees =
revenue =
operating_income =
net_income =
products = Fast food including hamburgers, chicken products, salads, french fries and milkshakes
homepage = [http://www.hungryjacks.com.au hungryjacks.com.au]

Hungry Jack's (sometimes colloquially abbreviated to HJ's) is the exclusive Australian master fast food franchisee of Burger King Corporation. Its parent company is Hungry Jack's Pty Ltd which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Competitive Foods Australia, a privately held company owned by Jack Cowin. Hungry Jack's currently owns and operates or sub-licenses all of the Hungry Jack's and Burger King restaurants in Australia. As the master franchise for the continent, the company is responsible for licensing new operators, opening its own stores and performing standards oversight of franchised locations in that country. With over 300 locations across Australia, HJ's is the second largest franchisee of Burger King in the world.

Corporate profile

History of "Burger King" in Australia

When Burger King moved to expand its operations into Australia, it found that its business name was already trademarked by takeaway food shop in Adelaide.cite journal |url= |title=Where's the Beef? Why Burger King Is Hungry Jack's in Australia and Other Complications in Building a Global Franchise Brand |author=Andrew Terry |coauthors=Heatrher Forrest |journal=Northwestern Journal of International Law and Business, 2008 |volume=28 |issue=2 |pages=pp. 171–214 |issn=01963228 |date=2008 |accessdate=2008-07-27 |quote= ] As a result, Burger King provided the Australian franchisee, Jack Cowin, with a list of possible alternative names derived from pre-existing trademarks already registered by Burger King and its then corporate parent Pillsbury that could be used to name the Australian restaurants. Cowin selected the "Hungry Jack" brand name, one of Pillsbury's US pancake mixture products, and slightly changed the name to a possessive form by adding an apostrophe 's' forming the new name Hungry Jack's.cite web |url=http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/06/01/1054406074309.html |title=Burger King slips into Hungry Jacks uniform |author=AP Wire |publisher=the Sydney Morning Herald |date=2003-06-02 |accessdate=2008-03-08 |quote=Burger King Corp's new management said on Friday it was ceding the Australian market to the Hungry Jack's brand, dissolving a convoluted relationship that at one time went to court in a franchising dispute.] The first Australian franchise of Burger King Corporation was established in Innaloo Perth on the 18th of April 1971, under the auspices of Cowin's new company Hungry Jack's Pty, Limited.cite web |url=http://www.allbusiness.com/retail-trade/eating-drinking-places/4275422-1.html |title=Burger King Re-flags Australian Stores |author=Restaurant Business News |publisher=AllBusiness.com |date=2003-05-30 |accessdate=2007-09-29 |quote=Mr Cowin bought the Australian franchise for Burger King from the chain's then-owner, Pillsbury Co. But because the Burger King name was already registered in the country, Cowin used a Pillsbury pancake-mix brand, Hungry Jack, for his stores."; "Hungry Jack's was BK's original franchisee in Australia, but the company could not use the Burger King name at the time because it was already trademarked.]

;1996 to 2001 - Legal proceedings

In 1991, Hungry Jack's Pty Limited renewed its franchise agreement with Burger King Corporation which allowed the Hungry Jack's to license third party franchisee, however, one of the conditions of the agreement was that Hungry Jack's had to open a certain number of stores each year for the term of the contract. In 1996, shortly after the Australian trademark on the Burger King name lapsed, Burger King Corporation made a claim that Hungry Jack's had violated the conditions of the renewed franchise agreement by failing to the expand the chain at the rate defined in the contract and sought to terminate the agreement. Under the aegis of this claim, Burger King Corporation in partnership with Royal Dutch Shell's Australian division Shell Company of Australia Ltd., began to open its own stores in 1997 beginning in Sydney and throughout the Australian regions of New South Wales, Australian Capital Territory and Victoria.cite web |url=http://www.zarcolawfirm.com/CM/News/news26.asp |title=Burger King Hit With Whopper ($44.6 Million) Of A Judgment |author=Alina Matas |publisher=Zargo Einhorn Salkowski & Brito. P.A. |date=1999-11-11 |accessdate=2007-09-29 ] cite web |url=http://southflorida.bizjournals.com/southflorida/stories/2003/05/26/daily36.html |title=In Australia, Burger King to become 'Hungry Jack's' |publisher=South Florida Business Journal, |date=2003-05-30 |accessdate=2007-09-29] cite web |url=http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/11-06-1998/0000795657&EDATE= |title=Burger King Corporation Announces The Opening Of The Company's 10,000th Restaurant |author=BK press release |publisher=PR Newswire |date=1998-11-06 |accessdate=2008-03-08 |quote=Burger King Corporation announced today that it is opening its 10,000th restaurant in Australia on Saturday, November 7, a major milestone in the fast-food giant's development plans.] In addition, BK sought to limit HJ's ability to open new locations in the country, whether they were corporate locations or third-party licensees.cite web |url=http://www.findlaw.com.au/articles/default.asp?task=read&id=4242&site=GN |title=A Franchiser’s Duty of Good Faith and Fair Dealing |author=Rani Mina |publisher=Findlaw Australia |date= |accessdate=2008-03-08 |quote=]

As a result of Burger King's actions, Hungry Jack's owner Jack Cowin and his company Competitive Foods Australia, began legal proceedings in 2001 against the Burger King Corporation claiming Burger King Corporation had violated the conditions of the master franchising agreement and was in breach of the contract. The Supreme Court of New South Wales agreed with Cowin and determined that BK had violated the terms of the contract and awarded Hungry Jack's $46.9 million AUD ($41.6 million 2001 US dollars). [Cite Case AU|NSWCA|187|2001] In its decision, the Court said that Burger King sought to engineer a default of the franchise agreement so that the company could limit the number of new Hungry Jack’s branded restaurants and ultimately claim the Australian market as its own, which was a purpose that was extraneous to the agreement. [Cite Case AU|hcatranscripts|S157|1|2001] The case introduced the American legal concept of good faith negotiations into the Australian legal system, which until the time of the verdict had been rarely used in the Australian court systems. [cite web |url=http://www.aar.com.au/pubs/comp/trpjun0100.htm |title=Importing into Australian law the US notion of good faith in contract-related dealings |author=|publisher=Allens Arthur Robinson |date=June 2008 |accessdate=2008-05-24 |quote=Now, it seems that the Courts are using these concepts in commercial disputes in New South Wales. An unreported judgment late last year in Hungry Jack's v Burger King indicates that the notion of good faith may well be implied between the parties in some contractual disputes.] [cite web |url=http://www.findlaw.com.au/articles/default.asp?task=read&id=4242&site=LE |title=A Franchiser’s Duty of Good Faith and Fair Dealing |author=Rani Mina (Corrs Chambers Westgarth) |publisher=Findlaw (Australia) |date=March 2002 |accessdate=2008-06-01 |quote=In contrast, it was necessary to imply this duty [good faith] in the Burger King case to give business efficacy to the agreement because the agreement gave Burger King a discretionary power to terminate the agreement on the basis of operational and financial grounds that involved subjective considerations. Burger King could terminate the agreement for the slightest breach based on a subjective evaluation of the circumstances if it were not obliged to act in good faith.]

;2002 to the present dayAfter Burger King Corporation lost the case, it decided to terminate its operations in the country and in July 2002 the company transferred its assets to its New Zealand franchise group, Trans-Pacific Foods (TPF).cite press release |url=http://www.istart.co.nz/index/HM20/PC0/PVC197/EX28864/CS27744 |title=Burger King all fired up about Microsoft Great Plains Professional |author=Olympic Software press release |publisher=iStart |date=May 2006 |accessdate=2008-07-27 |quote=TPF Restaurants manages the New Zealand Burger King franchise. Established in New Zealand in 1994, the company now has 65 restaurants in New Zealand and a growing operation in Australia.] The terms of the sale had TPF assume oversight of the Burger King franchises in the region as the Burger King brand's master franchisee.cite press release |url=http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/04-24-2002/0001713374&EDATE= |title=Burger King Corporation Announces New Agreement Creating A Growth Platform For The Burger King(R) Brand In Australia |author=BK Press release |publisher=PRNewswire |date=2002-04-24 |accessdate=2008-07-27 |quote=The agreement also includes servicing the 21 existing BURGER KING franchisees, all new franchisees operating under the BURGER KING brand and the responsibility for growth and development of the brand in Australia] Trans-Pacific Foods administered the chain's 81 locations until September 2003 when the new management team of Burger King Corporation reached an agreement with Hungry Jack's Pty Ltd to re-brand the existing Burger King locations to Hungry Jack's and make HJP the sole master franchisee of both brands. An additional part of the agreement required Burger King Corporation to provide administrative and advertising support as to insure a common marketing scheme for the company and its products. [cite web |url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3190/is_23_37/ai_103382728 |title=Hungry Jack's to replace BK brand in Australia |author=The Gale Group |publisher=Nations Restaurant News |date=2003-06-09 |accessdate=2008-03-08 |quote="Consolidation means more money for marketing and will create a powerful, single brand with an increased focus on operations excellence that should add to growth in profitability", Brad Blum, chief executive of Miami-based Burger King, said.] Trans-Pacific Foods transferred its control of the Burger King franchises to Hungry Jack's Pty Ltd, which subsequently renamed the remaining Burger King locations as "Hungry Jack's".

;Facts and figuresMany Hungry Jack's restaurant locations are designed around a 1950s/1960s styled theme. Background music from this era may be played within the restaurant (occasionally through a '50s era styled Jukebox) with associated contemporary pictures and memorabilia utilized as part of the interior decor. In the larger sit-down style restaurants, the seats and tables are laid out in a 1950s diner style.

Products

The only BK trademarked products that HJ sells are the Whopper and the Ocean Catch sandwich. All other products go by a generic naming such as hamburger, chicken nuggets or fries. Otherwise, Hungry Jack's sells the usual range of burgers but also offers an Australian specialty: the Aussie Burger. This burger is based on the traditional Australian fish and chips shop favourite, including fried egg, bacon, onion, and beetroot, with the traditional meat, lettuce, and tomato. Hungry Jack's locations are required to follow any menu changes made by Burger King.

Hungry Jack's breakfast menu, introduced in late 2005 in three states (Queensland, Western Australia, and Northern Territory) and the other states on October 31 2007, bears little resemblance to Burger King's US breakfast menu. The main breakfast sandwich is served on either an English muffin, baguette roll or as a wrap (breakfast burrito) instead of a croissant; the hash browns are served as patties as opposed to Tater Tots and the restaurant features pancakes.cite web |url=http://www.hungryjacks.com.au/Menu.aspx |title=Hungry Jack's menu |accessdate=2000-08-26] cite web |url=http://www.bk.com/#menu=2,-1,-1 |title=Burger King's US menu |accessdate=2007-08-29]

Advertising

Hungry Jack's in Australia has trademarked the new slogan, 'Oh Yeah', which was featured in commercials that ran late 2005/early 2006. Other changes at Hungry Jack's include a new salad line and deli-style baguettes. While Burger King has updated its logo to the "blue crescent" design in all other markets, the Hungry Jack's logo is still based on the previous 1996 revised Burger King bun-halves logo, employing the simpler bun-and-filling motif.

Hungry Jack's Kid's Club mascots are unique to the Australian franchisee, as opposed to other international locations that use one the two existing BK kid's mascots, the Burger King Kids' Club or the Honbatz. HJ does have a Kid's Club program similar to the US offering, offering themed birthday parties at its restaurants along with its Kid's Club Meals. One other noticeable difference between the HJ and BK children's programs is the placement of the apostrophe in the name: HJ places it before the "s" while BK places it after.

Hungry Jack's retains strong links with Perth, with the city's first team in the Australian Football League, the West Coast Eagles, having been sponsored by Hungry Jack's since their entry into the league in 1987.

ee also

* KFC (Another one of Jack Cowin's franchises in Australia)
* Domino's Pizza (Another one of Jack Cowin's franchises in Australia)

References

External links

* [http://www.hungryjacks.com.au/ Hungry Jack's website]