CKE Restaurants, Inc. and RWJP Star Enterprises have entered into a franchise development agreement to open a minimum of 121 Carl’s Jr.(r) restaurants in the Dallas/Ft. Worth, Houston, Tyler/Longview and Beaumont, Texas markets over the next 10 years.
Carl’s Jr. currently has sixteen franchised units in Texas, including seven in El Paso, five in the greater Dallas area, two in Wichita Falls, one in San Antonio, and one in Laredo. In addition, Carl’s Jr. opened three company-owned restaurants in the San Antonio and Austin markets this year and will open additional restaurants in these markets in the coming year. The company intends to aggressively pursue both franchise and company owned development in Texas where its products are very well received and the business environment is favorable.
This agreement is the latest step in the company’s program to increase overall unit growth, particularly franchise unit growth. For fiscal 2009 to date, the company has entered into a total of 18 franchise development agreements representing commitments for 375 restaurants, consisting of 231 domestic units and 144 international units, including agreements to enter three new countries – China, Pakistan and Kazakhstan. Over the next five years, the Company anticipates it will add more than 800 new restaurants to its global store base. In the process, franchised restaurants should increase from 68.5% of the system to approximately 75% and international locations should increase from 10% of the system to approximately 20 percent.