Chick-fil-A

Chick-fil-A

Type	Private
Industry	Restaurants
Founded	1946 (first Dwarf House opened in Hapeville, Georgia) 1967 (first Chick-fil-A opened in Atlanta, Georgia)
Headquarters	College Park, Georgia, U.S.
Key people	S. Truett Cathy, Chairman, CEO Dan T. Cathy, President, COO
Products	Sandwiches, chicken entrées
Revenue	US$4.0 billion (2011)
Website	chick-fil-a.com

A Chick-fil-A in the food court of The Galleria in Uptown Houston, Texas

A series of Chick-fil-A trucks at the Airport West Distribution Center

Chick-fil-A at Holcombe and Buffalo Speedway, Houston, Texas

Chick-fil-A headquarters in College Park, Georgia

Chick-fil-A (pronounced /ˌtʃɪk fɨˈleɪ/, referring to "fillet") is a quick service restaurant chain headquartered in College Park, Georgia, United States, specializing in chicken entrées and is known for promoting the company founder's Christian values. Long associated with the southern United States, where it has been a cultural icon, the chain has expanded. As of February 2012, Chick-fil-A has 1,606 restaurants in 38 states and the District of Columbia, and is focusing future growth in the American Midwest and southern California.

History

Chick-fil-A had historically been identified with shopping malls, as most of its original restaurants were in their food courts. Its first freestanding store opened in 1986; most of its new restaurants also are freestanding. As of 2012, the chain has over 930 such units. It also has over two dozen drive-through-only locations. Chick-fil-A also can be found at universities, hospitals, and airports through licensing agreements.

The chain grew from the Dwarf Grill (later the Dwarf House, a name still used by the chain), a restaurant opened by S. Truett Cathy, who is still the company's chairman, in the Atlanta, Georgia suburb of Hapeville in 1946. This restaurant is near the now-demolished Ford plant, where some workers ate between shifts.

The first Chick-fil-A that is in a mall opened in Atlanta's Greenbriar Mall in 1967. The company's current trademarked slogan, "We Didn't Invent the Chicken, Just the Chicken Sandwich," refers to their flagship menu-item, the popular quick-serve or fast-food chicken sandwich. In 1961, Cathy found a pressure-fryer that could cook the sandwich chicken in the same amount of time it took to cook a fast-food hamburger.

Since 1994, the Atlanta-based company has been the title sponsor of the Peach Bowl, an annual college football bowl game played in Atlanta. Beginning in the 2006 season, the Peach Bowl became the Chick-fil-A Bowl. Chick-fil-A also is a key sponsor of the SEC, ACC, and Big 12 conferences of college athletics.

Advertising

"Eat mor chikin" is the chain's most prominent advertising slogan, created by the The Richards Group in 1995. The slogan is often seen in advertisements, featuring cows that are often seen wearing (or holding) signs that [usually] reads: "Eat mor chikin" in all capital letters. According to Chick-fil-A's advertising strategies, the cows have united in an effort to reform American food, in an effort to reduce the amount of beef which is eaten. They wish the American public to refrain from eating beef burgers, common at Chick-fil-A's competitors, such as McDonald's, Burger King and Wendy's, and instead focus on eating chicken (or "chikin," as the cows spell it). The ad campaign was temporarily halted during a mad cow disease scare on January 1, 2004 so as not to make the chain seem insensitive or appear to be taking advantage of the scare to increase its sales. Two months later, the cows were put up again. The cows replaced the chain's old mascot, Doodles, an anthropomorphized chicken who still appears as the C on the logo.

Chick-fil-A vigorously protects its intellectual property, sending cease and desist letters to those they think have infringed on their trademarks. The corporation has successfully protested at least 30 instances of the use of an "eat more" phrase, saying that the use would cause confusion of the public, dilute the distinctiveness of their intellectual property and diminish its value. A 2011 letter to Vermont artist Bo Muller-Moore who screen prints t-shirts reading: "Eat More Kale" demanded that he cease printing the shirts and turn over his website. The incident has drawn criticism from Vermont governor Peter Shumlin and has created backlash against Chick-fil-A's "corporate bullying."

Sponsored events

Chick-fil-A Classic

The Chick-fil-A Classic is a high school basketball tournament held in Columbia, South Carolina. The tournament is in its eighth year of operation and features nationally ranked players and teams. The tournament is co-sponsored by the Greater Columbia Educational Advancement Foundation (GCEAF) which provides scholarships to high school seniors in the greater Columbia area.

Chick-fil-A Bowl

Formerly known as the Peach Bowl, the Chick-fil-A Bowl is a college football bowl game played each year in Atlanta, Georgia between teams from the Atlantic Coast Conference and the Southeastern Conference.

Chick-fil-A College Kickoff

The Chick-fil-A College Kickoff is an annual early-season college football game played at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, Georgia. It features two highly ranked teams, one of which has always been from the Southeastern Conference. Starting with the 2012 season, the event will be expanded to two games.

Chick-fil-A Kyle Petty Charity Ride Across America

The Chick-fil-A Kyle Petty Charity Ride Across America is an annual charity motorcycle tour to raise money for, among other charities, the Victory Junction Gang Camp for terminally-ill children.

Related restaurants

Dwarf House

At the original Chick-fil-A Dwarf House, in addition to the full-size entrances, there is also an extra small-sized front door. The original Dwarf House in Hapeville, Georgia is open 24 hours a day, six days a week, except on Sundays (when it closes at 4 a.m. on Sunday mornings and reopens at 6 a.m. on Monday mornings). It has a larger dine-in menu than the other Dwarf House locations as well as an animated seven dwarfs display in the back of the restaurant.

Truett's Grill

In 1996, the first Truett's Grill was opened in Morrow, Georgia. The second location opened in 2003 in McDonough, Georgia, and a third location opened in 2006 in Griffin, Georgia. Similar to the Chick-fil-A Dwarf Houses, these independently owned restaurants offer traditional, sit-down dining and expanded menu selections in a diner-themed atmosphere. One major difference to other Chick-fil-A restaurants, however, is the fact that beef products are served there, including steaks and hamburgers.

Religious and political views

S. Truett Cathy is a devout Southern Baptist; his religious beliefs are a major impact on the company. The company's official statement of corporate purpose says that the business exists "To glorify God by being a faithful steward of all that is entrusted to us. To have a positive influence on all who come in contact with Chick-fil-A."Cathy's beliefs are also responsible for one of the chain's distinctive features: All Chick-fil-A locations (company-owned and franchised, whether in a mall or freestanding) are closed on Sundays, as well as on Thanksgiving and Christmas. Cathy states as the final step in his Five-Step recipe for Business Success "I was not so committed to financial success that I was willing to abandon my principles and priorities. One of the most visible examples of this is our decision to close on Sunday. Our decision to close on Sunday was our way of honoring God and of directing our attention to things that mattered more than our business"

In an interview with ABC News's Nightline, Dan Cathy, Truett's son, gave reporter Vicki Mabrey another reason why the company is closed on Sundays, saying his father opened his first restaurant on a Tuesday and "by the time Sunday came, he was just worn out. And Sunday was not a big trading day, anyway, at the time. So he was closed that first Sunday and we've been closed ever since. He figured if he didn't like working on Sundays, that other people didn't either." The younger Cathy quoted his father as saying "'I don't want to ask people to do that what I am not willing to do myself.'" Chick-fil-A has also promoted religious groups via toys and CDs included in children's meals.

Controversy

Chick-fil-A's connection to Christianity has been brought before the courts when Aziz Latif, a Houston-based Muslim employee for six years, sued the company in 2002 for firing him, alleging that he was fired for his religious beliefs when he had refused to take part in an employee prayer. The suit was settled on undisclosed terms.

Homophobia allegations

In January 2011, various news outlets reported that Chick-fil-A was co-sponsoring a marriage conference along with the Pennsylvania Family Institute, a 501(c)3 organization that seeks to "strengthen families by restoring to public life the traditional, foundational principles and values essential for the well-being of society". PFI had filed an amicus brief against the trial ruling striking down Proposition 8 in California, and had also lobbied against a state effort to ban discrimination in Pennsylvania on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. At the time, the WinShape Foundation was also quoted as stating it would not allow same-sex couples to participate in its marriage retreats. In response to the reported connections between PFI and WinShape, students at several colleges and universities formed grassroots efforts to ban or remove the company from their campuses.

Responding to the situation via their official company Facebook page, Chick-fil-A said:

First and foremost, thanks for your patience as we made sure we gathered the facts in regards to recent postings. We have determined that one of our independent Restaurant Operators in Pennsylvania was asked to provide sandwiches to two Art of Marriage video seminars. As our fans, you know we do our best to serve our local communities, and one of the ways we do that is by providing food to schools, colleges, civic groups, businesses, places of worship, not-for-profit groups, etc. At his discretion, the local Operator agreed to simply provide a limited amount of food. Our Chick-fil-A Operators and their employees try very hard every day to go the extra mile in serving ALL of our customers with honor, dignity and respect.

According to Chick-Fil-A's 990 IRS forms, the charitable WinShape (largely funded by Chick-fil-A) gave more than $2 million to anti-gay groups between 2003 and 2009, the majority in 2009. This has caused consternation for advocates that have denounced the chain over its support of groups opposed to gay and lesbian rights, and led to Northeastern University's Student Senate voted on February 28, 2012 to cancel plans for an on-campus Chick-fil-A restaurant.

November 3, 2011 the New York University Student Senators Council voted 19 to 4 to retain the Chik-fil-A franchise on campus. This vote came before a petition with over 11,000 signatures opposing its presence on campus was sent to the student council.

State of California court case

In 2006 a lawsuit was brought by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine against McDonald's, Applebee's, Outback Steakhouse, Chili's, T.G.I. Fridays, Burger King and Chick-fil-A. The organization asserted that cooking certain meats, including chicken, at high temperatures causes the meat to contain the chemical PhIP, a compound which had caused cancer in lab rats and mice. A 2009 ruling for the defendants was followed by an August 2010 appeal decided in favor of the plaintiffs. The matter has not been legally resolved and is still before the courts of California.

External links

• Chick-fil-A