Burger King

McDonalds VS. Burger King

The predecessor to what is now the international fast food restaurant chain Burger King was founded in 1953 in Jacksonville, Florida, as Insta-Burger King. Inspired by the McDonald brothers' original store location in San Bernardino, California, the founders and owners, Keith J. Kramer and his wife's uncle Matthew Burns, began searching for a concept to open a new restaurant around. After purchasing the rights to two pieces of equipment called "Insta" machines, the two opened their first stores around a cooking device known as the Insta-Broiler. The Insta-Broiler oven proved so successful at cooking burgers, they required all of their franchises to carry the device. After the original company began to falter in 1959, it was purchased by its Miami, Florida, franchisees James McLamore and David R. Edgerton. The two initiated a corporate restructuring of the chain; the first step was to rename the company Burger King. The duo ran the company as an independent entity for eight years, eventually expanding to over 250 locations in the United States, when they sold it to the Pillsbury Company in 1967.

Pillsbury's management tried several times to reorganize or restructure the restaurant chain in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The most prominent change came in 1978 when Burger King hired McDonald's executive Donald N. Smith to help revamp the company. In a plan called Operation Phoenix, Smith initiated a restructuring of corporate business practices at all levels of the company. Changes to the company included updated franchise agreements, a broadening of the menu, and new store designs to standardize the look and feel of the company. Smith left the company for soft drinks producer PepsiCo in 1980, and a resulting system-wide decline in sales began shortly after. Pillsbury executive vice president of restaurant operations Norman E. Brinker was tasked with turning the brand around and strengthening its position against its main rival,...