Hungry Jack’s – The Wikipedia Story
Hungry Jack’s – The Wikipedia Story
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.
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.[1] 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. 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.
- 1996–2001 — 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. 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.
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). 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 the present day
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 (TPF). 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 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. 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 figures
Many 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.
– Thank you to Wikipedia for helping to clarify stories.
– Bonnie
