Executive Summary
Beginning with one restaurant, Sonic has become the largest drive-in chain in the United States. While they are smaller than their competitors, they are still leading in sales growth, customer loyalty and customer satisfaction. Sonic restaurants saturate the southern U.S. This gives them the opportunity to expand to other area. However, Sonic is reluctant due to the colder climates and their basis as a drive-in restaurant. Sonic should look at adding or combining capabilities to it’s restaurants to increase competitiveness and make it easier for them to expand into other areas without limiting themselves.
Situational Analysis
In 1953, Troy Smith, the founder of SONIC and World War II veteran, was living in Shawnee, Oklahoma. Troy dreamed of owning his own restaurant business. In fact, he had already tried twice.
Troy first owned a small diner called the Cottage Café. The income he received was barely enough to make a living for himself and his family. Troy sold the Cottage Café and bought a bigger restaurant. His next business, the Panful of Chicken, was so successful that he tried opening more. Unfortunately, fried chicken didn't do well in early 1950s Oklahoma and Troy closed his Panful of Chicken restaurant.
Troy then owned a steak house that had a root beer stand attached. This root beer stand, called The Top Hat proved more profitable and eventually outlasted the steak house.
While traveling to Louisiana, Troy saw some homemade intercom speakers in use at a local hamburger stand. He contacted the innovator in Louisiana and asked him to make an intercom for the Top Hat. He then hired some local electronics wizards to install the system. He then added a canopy for cars to park under and servers to deliver the food right to customers’ cars. During the first week after the intercom was installed, the Top Hat took in $1750.
With his new partner, Charlie Pappe, four more Top Hats were opened. However, their lawyers informed them that the Top Hat name was copyrighted. They changed the name to Sonic to go along with the restaurant slogan of "Service With the Speed of SoundSM."1
In 1973, a group of ten principal franchise owners became the officers of the company. Shares were offered to each store owner. Because of the amount of stock offered, Sonic became a publicly traded company with 165 stores in the chain.
Between 1973 and 1978, Sonic grew tremendously. 800 new stores were opened and a Sonic School that formally trained new managers was established.
Moe’s Southwest grill is a fairly new franchise concept. Moe’s was organized July 17, 2000 in Atlanta, Georgia by founder and CEO H. Martin Sprock III. The first franchises were offered in 2001. Their parent company is Raving Brands, franchisor of Doc Green’s, Mams Fu’s, Planet Smoothie, PJ’s Coffee, Monkey Joe’s. On April 11, 2007, Raving Brands sold Moe's to FOCUS Brands, franchisor of Carvel, Cinnabon, Seattle's Best Coffee, and Schlotzsky's. There headquarters is located at 2915 Peachtree Rd., NE Atlanta, GA 30305. On March 12, 2007, Raving Brands entered into a 40-store development deal with Canadian partner True North Brands, Inc., representing Raving Brands’ move to an international playing field. On March 27, 2007 Moe’s Southwest Grill contracted with North America’s largest food service marketer and distributor, SYSCO Food Services, to consolidate its U.S. food purchasing and distribution program. The company logo MOE’S SOUTHWEST GRILL and a picture is as follows:
The story of Starbucks coffee history begins in Seattle in 1971 when the first Starbucks opened at Pike Place Market, which is Seattle's and the Nation's oldest Farmer's Market. At this time the company was a local coffee roasting facility. That remained their core business until 1982 when Howard Schulz joined the company. He was the new marketing executive and began right away to convince more and more local cafes, upscale restaurants, and hotels to buy Starbucks coffee. The turning point for the company and the beginning of coffee history should be one year later when Schulz traveled through Italy. He got inspired by the Italian coffee bar tradition to serve fresh brewed Espresso and Cappuccino. He convinced the Starbucks founders to give his idea a chance and in 1985 he opened the first coffee bar in Seattle, named Il Giornale. (Wilson)
Sonic is the largest drive-in chain in the United States. Under the slogan "America's Drive-In," a Sonic features fast service by roller-skating carhops and unique menu items that cannot be found at McDonalds, Burger King, or Wendys. Sonic restaurants operate in 27 states so it is smaller than leading fast food chains however it is still a significant competitor. Founded by Troy Smith and Charlie Pappe in 1953, Sonic went from a single root beer stand to a popular franchise. In 1973, Sonic restructured as a franchise company and later became Sonic Corporation. The company experienced financial decline due to the lack of consistency from its franchisees so they were bought out by Sonic Corporation and restructured. In 1995, Sonic introduced "Sonic 2000," an aggressive multi-layered strategy to further unify the company in terms of a consistent menu, brand identity, products, packaging, and service. The campaign was successful and Sonic's brand recognition increased. Strengths include a strong competitive nature, flexible strategies, and employee/franchisor relationships. Weaknesses include lack of communication and domestic expansion. Threats in the external environment include company size, employee turnover, weak economy, rivals in similar industries, overseas expansion, and slow growth markets. Sonic can overcome these threats with opportunities such as global expansion, increase in the number of quick service consumers, and appealing investment opportunities. Alternative strategies and recommendations suggest that Sonic should concentrate on a low cost strategy and focusing on niches such as the health food market.
Demand for Panera franchising opportunities was very high, which allowed Panera to be picky about where and with whom they would do business. Panera determined where bakery-café locations could be. The franchisees bore the cost of opening new locations, and were required to obtain their ingredients from the home company. Expansion using the franchise model provided many upside benefits for Panera, while limiting the downside r...
While peddling about the country he came in contact with the super efficient McDonald's hamburger joint, which was started by Dick and Mac McDonald, who were brothers. He saw this place and optimistically envisioned many more opening up all over the country. He convinced the brothers to let him be their first franchisee. They agreed so in 1954 Ray opened up the first McDonalds franchise. A year later, Ray opened up the second McDonalds franchise in Des Plaines, Illinois. Only four years after the second restaurant's opening the one hundredth McDonalds was opened. In 1961 Ray Kroc bought the rights to the McDonalds franchise for a meager 2.7 million dollars. To pay this massive sum at the time he had to mortgage his house and take out numerous loans that would eventually cost him 14 million to pay back. After he bought the rights to the name and the company he forced Dick and Mac to remove their name from their original restaurant. But he went even further when he opened up a McDonalds restaurant a block down the road trying to put them out of business. Also that same year Hamburger University was opened.
Everyone has heard of McDonald’s, but where did this familiar name come from? When people think of American food, it is not uncommon for two golden arches to appear in their minds. This story began with two brothers Dick and Mac McDonald who owned and ran a small restaurant in San Bernardino, California during the 1940s. In 1954 a man named Ray Kroc came across these two brothers while selling multi-mixers and was impressed with the business they were running. The menu was compact, listing options for only a few burgers, fries and beverages, but the restaurant was effective in its operation. Ray Kroc pitched the idea of spreading McDonald’s restaurants across the United States and in 1955 he founded the McDonald’s Corporation. By 1960 he bought the exclusive rights to the name. Kroc was able to expand substantially on this small business so that by 1958 McDonald’s sold its 100 millionth hamburger. (“McDonald’s.com”)
The first Starbucks was opened in Seattle, Washington in 1971 by three partnersEnglish teacher Jerry Baldwin, history teacher Zev Siegel, and wrier Gordon Bowker. The three were inspired by Alfred Peet, whom they knew personally, to open their first store in Pike Place Market to sell high-quality coffee beans and equipment.
As a company, McDonald’s was first introduced in Des Plaines, Illinois in 1955. This was the very first McDonald’s restaurant, which all started in San Bernardino, California in 1954 when Ray Kroc approached the McDonald brothers with a business proposition to start a new company. In 1965 McDonald’s went public and was later, in 1985 added to the Dow Jones Industrial Average. (www.mcdonalds.com) The company has gone through quite a few changes with its changing CEO’s over the years, but the company seems to be on track with CEO Jim Skinner, named in 2004. Skinner was named the new CEO just in time to clean up after McDonald’s first ever quarterly loss. He succeeded by showing that McDonald’s revenue had climbed 11% during 2006 and net profits had climbed 36%. (Dess, Case 40 Pg. 1)
Founded in 1953, Sonic has become the largest drive-in chain in the nation. Sonic was founded by Troy Smith, Jr. in Shawnee, Oklahoma. His dream was to own his own business. Sonic Drive-In keeps the 1950s alive through its chain of drive-in restaurants, each complete with speaker-based ordering systems and carhop servers - some on roller skates. Sonics top competitors are McDonald’s, Burger King, and Wendy’s. McDonald’s is the leading competitor in the fast-food industry. McDonald’s has the most restaurants with 12,380 locations and has over 364,000 employees. Burger King has 11,350 outlets in 57 countries and territories worldwide. About 75% is located in the United States. Wendy’s is the third largest quick-service hamburger restaurant chain in the world, with more than 6,600 restaurants in North America and international markets.
Another strength is Burger King’s franchise development having 90% of its restaurants franchised. The franchise concept allowed the company to grow with minimal capital expenditure and receive royalties and fees. Burger King went above and beyond and created a new model of its restaurant to attract mo...
The company started its activity in 1971 as small coffee shop located in Seattle specialized in selling whole arabica coffee beans. After being taken over by Howard Schultz in 1982, following a rapid and impressive growth, by mid 2002 the company was the dominant specialty-coffee brand in North America, running about 4,500 stores, 400 international stores and 930 licenses.
In 1987, Howard Shultz purchased the Starbucks name and assets and presided as the new CEO. Three years later, he approached Smith, who was then working at Danzas (a freight shipping company) to enlist him as the company’s CFO. Smith was able to see the vision and future potential of Starbucks. It was then, that Smith began driving Starbucks through its delicate years of raising capital, becoming a public company, and developing goals for future growth (Moix 1).
In 1971, three young entrepreneurs began the Starbucks Corporation in Seattle Washington. Their key goal was to sell whole coffee beans. Soon after, Starbucks began experiencing huge growth, opening five stores all of which had roasting facilities, sold coffee beans and room for local restaurants. In 1987, Howard Schultz bought Starbucks from its original owners for $4 million after expanding Starbucks by opening three coffee bars. These coffee bars were based on an idea that was originally proposed to the owner who recruited him into the corporation as manager of retail and marketing. Overall, Schultz strategy for Starbucks was to grow slow. Starbucks went on to suffer financial losses and overhead operating expenses rose as Starbucks continued its slow expansion process. Despite the initial financial troubles, Starbucks went on to expand to 870 stores by 1996. Sales increased 84%, which brought the corporation out of debt. With the growing success, Starbucks planned to open 2000 stores by year 2000.
Starbucks has come a long ways since their first store opened in 1971 in Seattle. By 1988 Starbucks
Starbucks is a worldwide company, known for is delicious brews of coffee and seasonal varieties of tasty drinks for any occasion. Starbucks opened with two main goals, sharing great coffee with friends and to help make the world a little better. It originated in the historic Pike Place Market of Seattle, Washington in 1971 by Jerry Baldwin, Zev Siegl and Gordon Bowker. The creation of Starbucks’ name came from the seafaring tradition of early coffee traders and the romance evoked from Moby Dick. At the time, this individual shop specialized in the towering quality of coffee over competitors and other brewing services enabling its growth to becoming the largest coffee chain in Washington with numerous locations. In the early 1980s, the current CEO Schultz saw an opportunity for growth in the niche market. After a trip to Italy he brought back the idea of a café style environment of leisure and social meetings to the United States we now see in Starbucks locations today. Schultz ultimately left Starbucks to open his own coffee shop, Il Giornale which turned out to be a tremendous success. Fast forward a year later, Schultz got wind that Starbucks was going to sell all their components of Starbucks including their stores and factories, he immediately acquired the funds to buy Starbucks and linked both operations. Within five years he was able to open more than 125 stores starting in New England, Boston, Chicago, and gradually entered California. He wanted Starbucks to be a franchise system based on the mission of telling the truth and emphasize the quality,