Burger Ranch (Israel)

Burger Ranch (Hebrew: 'בּורגראנץ) is an Israeli fast-food chain.

As of 2006, the Burger Ranch chain operates 69 restaurants with more than 1500 employees, through franchises or directly, competing primarily with McDonald's Israel, which operates about 80 restaurants as of 2005.

History

The first Burger Ranch in Israel was opened in 1972 by a South African Jew on Ben Yehuda Street in Tel Aviv. In 1978, a second restaurant was opened on the Ibn Gabirol Street in Tel Aviv. The chain rapidly expanded and until 1993, when McDonald's entered the Israeli market, was the market leader of Israel, next to the much smaller MacDavid chain (which has only four restaurants left in 2005). From the original South African owners, Burger Ranch moved to the ownership of the Shekem, then a state-owned chain of department stores and canteens that mostly served members of the Israel Defense Forces and their families.

The original Burger Ranch was opened in 1960 in Benoni בֶּןאוֹנִי South Africa by George Halamandaris. It featured beautiful rustic wooden benches, quality porcelain plates and of course, stainless steel knives and forks. Black Steer is another emerging restaurant of high standards in Israel which has its origins in South Africa. Black Steer is not a fast food restaurant but a grill house serving food of South African style and quality.

When Burger King tried to enter the Israeli market after McDonald’s, it first closed an agreement with the management of Burger Ranch that the Burger Ranch restaurants would be included in the Burger King chain. The deal fell through, however, when the individual franchise owners of the Burger Ranch restaurant did not agree to pay large sums of money for what amounted to a name change. In the end, Burger King opened 60 new restaurants without success. Burger Ranch then tried to take over the failing operation of Burger King in Israel, but was blocked by monopoly laws. Eventually Burger King made a throughstart with Orgad Holdings and has about 50 restaurants now.

In 1999, 74 percent of Burger Ranch was acquired by the energy company Paz. In late 2001, Paz completed the acquisition, becoming 100 percent owners of the chain. New branches of Burger Ranch were opened at Paz gas stations. In 2006, Paz sold the chain to the Israeli businessman Yossi Hoshinski.

One of the factors of Burger Ranch’s 2008 bankruptcy is the lack of customer relations and a functional channel for patrons to give feedback to top management.

Kashrut

Although the separate ingredients of the hamburgers are kosher, only some of the Burger Ranch restaurants are certified as kosher. The lack of certification is probably only attributed to operation on Shabbat. Burger Ranch does not sell cheeseburgers, non-kosher meats (such as bacon) or seafood, as a matter of franchise policy.

Two Burger Ranch restaurants are certified as being even more strictly kosher (Glatt Kosher), as of 2006. One is in Bnei Brak and one is in Jerusalem, both are under Bet Yosef supervision.

Some of the restaurants offer hamburgers in gluten-free buns. During Passover, all of the restaurants offer bread that is kosher for Passover instead of the regular buns. These unleavened buns are available also in non-kosher-certified restaurants.

Popular Culture

A song name “Burger Ranch” about an unsatisfied Burger Ranch female employee, by the band PingPong was a local hit released on May 2000 in Tel Aviv and Israel. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7HeDRFgsxc] .

External links

* [http://www.burgeranch.co.il/main.html Official website]