Hungry Jack's


Hungry Jack's Pty Ltd. is an Australian fast food franchise of the Burger King Corporation. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Competitive Foods Australia, a privately held company owned by Jack Cowin. Hungry Jack's owns and operates or sub-licences all of the Burger King/Hungry Jack's restaurants in Australia. As the master franchise for the country, the company is responsible for licensing new operators, opening its own stores and performing standards oversight of franchised locations in that country. With over 400 locations across Australia, Hungry Jack's is the second largest franchise 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 a takeaway food shop in Adelaide, South Australia. 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 U.S. pancake mixture products, and slightly changed the name to a possessive form by adding an apostrophe and "s" to form the new name "Hungry Jack's". The first Australian franchise of Burger King Corporation was established in Innaloo, Perth, on 18 April 1971, under the auspices of Cowin's new company Hungry Jack's Pty Ltd. By the end of its first decade of operation, Hungry Jack's had expanded to 26 stores in three states. In October 1981, the company opened its first New South Wales store in the Sydney central business district on the corner of Liverpool and George Street. In 1986, the chain entered Victoria by purchasing 11 stores from the ailing Wendy's Hamburger chain, later converting them to Hungry Jack's.

1996–2001 — legal proceedings


T2.
In 1991, Hungry Jack's Pty Ltd. 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 every 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 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 Shell Australia, began to open its own stores in 1997 beginning in Sydney and throughout the Australian regions of New South Wales, Australian Capital Territory, Victoria and Tasmania. In addition, Burger King sought to limit HJ's ability to open new locations in the country, whether they were corporate locations or third-party licensees.
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 Burger King had violated the terms of the contract and awarded Hungry Jack's A$46.9 million. 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. 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.

2002 to present

After 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. 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. 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 rebrand the existing Burger King locations to Hungry Jack's and make Hungry Jack's Pty 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 ensure a common marketing scheme for the company and its products. 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," joining the other 210 outlets at the time.
Many new Hungry Jack's restaurants have a 1950s theme. Music from this era may be played within the restaurant with associated contemporary pictures and memorabilia utilized as part of the decor. In the larger sit-down style restaurants, the seats and tables are laid out in a 1950s diner style.
In the 2009-2010 financial year, Competitive Foods Australia reported an after-tax profit of $32.1 million on sales of $1.043 billion.

Products

The only Burger King trademarks that are sold at Hungry Jack's are the Whopper and the TenderCrisp and TenderGrill sandwiches. All other products go by more generic naming schemes, such as "Hamburger", "Veggie Burger", or "Grilled Chicken Burger".
Hungry Jack's breakfast menu, introduced in late 2005 in three states and the other states the following year, bears little resemblance to Burger King's US breakfast menu.
Due to the increase in veganism across Australia, Hungry Jack's introduced a "Vegan Burger" in late 2018. A large promotional campaign was run, including partnering with Natalie Tran, creator of Community Channel.

Advertising

Hungry Jack's in Australia has trademarked the new slogan, 'Oh Yeah', which was featured in television commercials that ran late 2005/early 2006. While Burger King has updated its logo to the "blue crescent" design in all other markets from 1999, the Hungry Jack's logo is still based on the previous 1994 revised Burger King bun-halves logo, employing the simpler bun-and-filling motif.

Hungry Jack's Kids Club

Hungry Jack's Kid's Club mascots are unique to the Australian franchisee, as opposed to other international locations that use one of the two existing Burger King kid's mascots, the Burger King Kids' Club or the Honbatz. Hungry Jacks 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 Hungry Jack's and Burger King children's programs is the placement of the apostrophe in the name: Hungry Jacks places it before the "s" while Burger King places it after.

Sponsorship

Hungry Jack's retains strong links with Perth: the city's first team in the Australian Football League, the West Coast Eagles, have been sponsored by Hungry Jack's since their entry into the league in 1987.
On 5 October 2017, Hungry Jack's became the naming rights sponsor for the National Basketball League. The Hungry Jack's logo is featured on player jerseys, in and around venues, and the company was closely associated with Heritage Month in January.