Arby’s Menu Prices in Canada

Arby’s attempted to market itself as a somewhat more upscale fast-food restaurant. They accomplished this by pricing their sandwiches at 69 cents as opposed to McDonald’s 15 cent hamburgers.

The original Arby’s was a major success. The business-savvy Raffel Brothers saw the franchising opportunity before them and very quickly started to expand.

Within a few years, they had established more than 300 shops in almost 40 states.

Arby’s Bankruptcy

To expand as fast as the Raffel Brothers did, a significant amount of working capital was needed. The brothers took advantage of equity capital and bank loans as a way to pay for their growth in the late 1960s.

Unfortunately, the growth wasn’t quick enough to sustain all of the debt that they took on. In order to raise funds, the brothers decided to take their business public in 1970.

Unfortunately, the timing could not have been worse. Changes were happening at the SEC and this caused major delays for IPOs.

By the time they could finally go public, it was already too late. The brothers had to abandon the plan.

This caused major financial issues for the company. They also experienced various problems with franchise partners and banks.

By the end of 1970, the Raffel Brothers had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

The Comeback

Luckily, the Raffel story doesn’t end there.

During the bankruptcy reorganization process, the brothers took back control of their organization. They would spend the next several years bringing it back to a profitable business.

By the end of 1975, Arby’s had grown even more and had more than 500 locations across the country. Like what happened a few years earlier, a lot of cash was needed to sustain this growth.

But instead of attempting to go public again, the brothers decided to sell Arby’s to RC Cola for $18 million in 1976. That’s worth around $80 million today when taking inflation into account.

Under RC Cola’s ownership, the brothers would continue to run the company. By the end of the 1970s, Arby’s had more than 800 restaurants. By this time, the Raffel Brothers would finally step down from their positions and retire as multi-millionaires.

After the Raffel Brothers and RC Cola

Arby’s suffered greatly after the departure of their founding brothers. Through the early 80s, Arby’s were selling fewer and fewer sandwiches.

Luckily, things turned around in 1984 when RC Cola was bought out by the notoriously ruthless businessman, Victor Posner via his DWG Corp. Posner hired Leonard Roberts to act as Arby’s chief executive officer.

Roberts was only 40 years old when he took over the struggling company. He aimed to turn the company around in a number of ways, most notably by adjusting their menu.

Under RC’s management, Arby’s started selling burgers to compete with other fast-food restaurants. Seeing this as a failing strategy, Roberts scaled back on the burgers and instead pushed the roast beef sandwiches.

He also raised the quality standards at the company and started searching for new franchisees.

These tactics proved to be quite successful. By the mid-1980s, Arby’s was one of the best performing fast-food restaurants. They established hundreds of more locations in America and even some in Europe.

They were also one of the first fast-food restaurants to take credit cards and let customers order at a computer. Arby’s had grown to over 2,100 locations by 1989 and was making more than $1 billion a year.

Arby’s In The 90s

While Arby’s was proving to be a major success story to customers, behind the scenes was another story. Posner was facing financial problems personally and was taking money from Arby’s to keep himself afloat.

Roberts became dissatisfied with the way Posner was running things and Posner eventually fired Roberts.

After his departure, Arby’s once more began to struggle. By 1991, many executives were jumping ship, causing Arby’s to spiral even faster.

Posner’s massive financial issues meant that Arby’s would have to find a new owner. The company was bought up by Triarc Companies Inc. Arby’s itself was then headed by Don Pierce who had previously overseen operations at Taco Bell.

He helped redesign Arby’s to give it more of an Old West feeling. He then moved the headquarters from Miami to Fort Lauderdale.

And despite Posner’s raiding of Arby’s finances, the company continued to do fairly well. By 1993, they had grown to over 2,600 locations. They were now in the United States, Canada, the Caribbean, Latin America, the Middle East, Europe, Mexico, and Asia.

The next year, Don Pierce helped to get another 200 stores opened. Total sales had exploded to over $1.8 billion.

In 1995, Arby’s opened its biggest location ever in Tulsa. The store was 3,000-square-feet was estimated to make around $1.5 million a year in sales.

Arby’s Today

In 2008, Triarc purchased Wendy’s and renamed itself Wendy’s/Arby’s Group. In 2011, Roark Capital Group acquired a majority stake in Arby’s and continue to own the company to this day.

And in 2017, Arby’s acquired Buffalo Wild Wings for over $2 billion.

Enjoying Arby’s

Sure, going into an Arby’s, eating a roast beef sandwich, and then going about your day is all nice and good. But it’s interesting to read up on a bit of history and learn how Arby’s got to where it is today. In our opinion, that makes everything taste a whole lot better.

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