Carrols Restaurant Group, Inc. is an American franchisee company and is the largest

Burger King Burger King Corporation (BK, stylized in all caps) is an American multinational chain store, chain of hamburger fast food restaurants. Headquartered in Miami-Dade County, Florida, the company was founded in 1953 as Insta-Burger King, a Jacks ...

franchisee in the world; Carrols owns and operates over 1,000+ Burger Kings, and 55 Popeyes restaurants. The company has operated Burger Kings since 1976 in locations across 23 U.S. states. The company has its roots in the Carrols hamburger restaurant chain which operated in parts of the U.S. beginning circa 1960. The domestic locations were converted to Burger King restaurants beginning in 1975, though the brand survived in other parts of the world until as late as 2012 in Finland. For a time following the 1975 conversion to Burger King, the company also owned the restaurant chains Pollo Tropical and Taco Cabana.

History

An offshoot of the Tastee-Freez company, the original Carrols hamburger chain was named after the Tastee-Freez co-owner Leo S. Maranz's daughter, Carol. Herb Slotnick bought the franchise rights for the New York area and started opening restaurants in the

Syracuse, New York Syracuse ( ) is a City (New York), city in and the county seat of Onondaga County, New York, United States. With a population of 148,620 and a Syracuse metropolitan area, metropolitan area of 662,057, it is the fifth-most populated city and 13 ...

, area in the early 1960s. They expanded over the years throughout

New York State New York, also called New York State, is a state in the northeastern United States. Bordered by New England to the east, Canada to the north, and Pennsylvania and New Jersey to the south, its territory extends into both the Atlantic Ocean and ...

. During the 1960s, a yellow slug character served as Carrols' first mascot, replaced in 1974 by a young blonde boy wearing a tweed suit and a Fedora hat. At the chain's peak in the late 1960s, the company had 120 Carrols restaurants throughout New York state. Most Carrols restaurant locations were converted to Burger King franchises in 1975, with less profitable stores shuttered. After the conversion, the ''Carrols'' brand was only found overseas in

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

Estonia Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and to the east by Ru ...

Latvia Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...

and

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

– except for two stores: one on Roosevelt Avenue in Carteret, New Jersey, which closed in the late 1970s; and a single franchisee-owned store in

Batavia, New York Batavia is a city in and the county seat of Genesee County, New York, United States. It is located near the center of the county, surrounded by the Town of Batavia, which is a separate municipality. Batavia's population, as of the 2020 census, ...

. Both of these latter two stores operated under the Carrols name into the 1980s, before closing. The Finnish group Carrols opened up several locations in

St Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

, Russia in the mid-to-late 1990s. In 1998 it opened its first operation in

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

located at the then-new Ohotni Riad Mall. Because of the

1998 Russian financial crisis The Russian financial crisis (also called the ruble crisis or the Russian flu) began in Russia on 17 August 1998. It resulted in the Russian government and the Russian Central Bank devaluing the Russian rouble, ruble and sovereign default, defau ...

, the operations did not generate enough sales for Carrols, and by 2000 all Carrols outlets in Russia had been closed. The Finnish restaurant company Hesburger started to buy out the last existing Carrols locations in

Helsinki Helsinki () is the Capital city, capital and most populous List of cities and towns in Finland, city in Finland. It is on the shore of the Gulf of Finland and is the seat of southern Finland's Uusimaa region. About people live in the municipali ...

, Finland in the mid-2000s, with locations converted by 2012. On December 9, 2005, Carrols Holdings and Mimi's Café was filed for offerings. In February 2011 the company announced it was divesting itself of its two Central American-themed chains, Taco Cabana and Pollo Tropical, in a spin-off aimed at helping the company focus on its core Burger King operations. The sale of the two chains, collectively called the Fiesta Restaurant Group, was completed in May 2012. In June 2012, Carrols acquired 278 Burger King locations from Burger King for approximately $150 million. In exchange, the Burger King parent, Burger King Corporation took a 28.9% stake in the company. The transaction involved a line of credit that would be used by Carrols to renovate more than 450 of its stores. On February 20, 2019, Carrols announced a merger with Cambridge Franchise Holdings LLC in a deal worth 238 million dollars, which would add 55 Popeyes and 166 Burger King locations in the

southern United States The Southern United States (sometimes Dixie, also referred to as the Southern States, the American South, the Southland, Dixieland, or simply the South) is List of regions of the United States, census regions defined by the United States Cens ...

to Carrols' portfolio. The transaction would be "structured as a tax-free merger". Carrols will give Cambridge around 7.36 million common shares. Also included in the deal, Cambridge will get 9% of Carrols preferred stock. On February 22, 2022, Carrols named a new CEO, former McDonald's executive Paulo Pena, effective April 1, 2022. Then-current CEO Dan Accordino would retire. On January 16, 2024, Burger King and Popeyes owner

Restaurant Brands International Restaurant Brands International Inc. (RBI) is a Canadian Multinational corporation, multinational fast food holding company. It was formed in 2014 by the $12.5 billion merger between American fast food restaurant chain Burger King and Canadian ...

(RBI) announced that it would buy Carrols in an all-cash transaction worth approximately

US$ The United States dollar (Currency symbol, symbol: Dollar sign, $; ISO 4217, currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and International use of the U.S. dollar, several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introdu ...

1.0 billion. RBI said it intended to rapidly remodel 600 Carrols-owned Burger King locations to current company standards, and refranchise them back to smaller local operators. On May 16, 2024, it was announced that RBI had completed the purchase of Carrols Restaurant Group.

Theaters

Beginning in the early 1970s
Carrols owned
and operated th
CinemaNational
movie theater chain, until their sale to Mid-States Theaters and USA Cinemas in the early and mid-1980s. The theaters were concentrated in central New York State, but there were locations as far away as Wisconsin, Idaho and California. The chain consisted mostly of large single-screen locations that had been purchased from companies like Kallet, Hallmark and Dipson Theaters, along with new locations that were built by Slotnick. CinemaNational also built some triple-screen multiplex locations in sites like Penn-Can Mall in

Cicero, New York Cicero is a Administrative divisions of New York#Town, town in northern Onondaga County, New York, Onondaga County, New York (state), New York, United States. As of the 2020 Census, the population was 31,435. The name of the town was assigned by a ...

, and Fayetteville Mall in Fayetteville, New York, as well as Evansville, Indiana.

References

External links

* {{authority control, state=expanded Burger King Companies based in Syracuse, New York Restaurants established in 1960 2024 mergers and acquisitions Restaurants in New York (state) Companies formerly listed on the Nasdaq 2006 initial public offerings