Wendy’s Celebrates 25 Years

Monday 27 May 2013

Wendy’s Celebrates 25 Years

Wendy’s has marked 25 years in New Zealand with an event to thank the local community, customers and suppliers.

Opening its first restaurant in Te Atatu in 1988, the West Auckland company currently operates a chain of 18 stores around the North Island with four more set to open this year.

Celebrating its 25th birthday at the newly refurbished Te Atatu outlet, Wendy’s invited the wider community and customers to enjoy the family-friendly event.

A special retro menu offering menu items at 1988 prices was available including a “quarter-century” quarter pound cheeseburger at the original price of $3.30 and spaghetti bolognese brought back especially for the celebration.

The face of Wendy’s in New Zealand for over 20 years, Dave Vousden, was a special guest, as were Vodafone Warriors Kevin Locke, John Palavi, Jerome Ropati and Dane Nielsen.

A family-owned business with old-fashioned values, Wendy’s CEO Danielle Lendich said the milestone was an opportunity to recognise the company’s many longstanding suppliers.

Three of Wendy’s suppliers, all of which attended the birthday event, have been with it from the start, said Lendich. These include Otahuhu based meat supplier Wilson Hellaby which supplies Wendy’s 100% pure fresh New Zealand prime beef, Pukekohe grower Ray Payne who supplies much of the company’s fresh produce, and Lower Hutt sauce manufacturer Groenz.

“Wendy’s believes that real quality taste starts with real quality, fresh local ingredients, which is why we source almost all our ingredients from within New Zealand,” said Lendich. “Such relationships are integral to the success of Wendy’s, these people are our family.”

Lendich said that over past 25 years Wendy’s customers have chewed through more than 1.2 million kilos of Ray Payne’s tomatoes and 100,000 crates of iceberg lettuce. Hungry customers have also enjoyed 8,000 tonnes of fresh prime New Zealand beef from Wilson Hellaby and 1,790 tonnes of sauce from Groenz.

Following similar changes in the United States, Wendy’s New Zealand is also embracing a fresh new look. The first change in 30 years, the new logo has been stripped back with a modernised and more mature looking Wendy character and a more contemporary font that almost looks like Wendy’s signature.

The logo has begun appearing in the company’s advertising this month, as well as on product packaging, instore signage, online and on the Wendy’s app.

The makeover also extends to Wendy’s stores with innovations in newly refurbished stores including a new two-sided grill system used by Wendy’s in the USA that is currently being tested in Te Atatu.

“The new system reduces the cooking time as both sides of the beef are cooked at once. It also enhances food safety and opens up possibilities for new products, so if we’re happy with how things go with the test model we’ll look to roll this out to other restaurants.”

A new store in Palmerston North broke sales records, and new stores are scheduled to open in Frankton, Hamilton in June, Whangarei and Te Rapa, Hamilton in September and Hornby, Christchurch in November.

Lendich said the company is also looking at other stores further afield such as in Wellington, Christchurch central, Dunedin and Hawkes Bay, but this would be over the medium to long term.

With Queen St and Otara refurbished last year and the refurb of the original Te Atatu store now complete, Constellation Drive is next on the list with Wendy’s hopeful it will be complete by July.

WENDY’S TIMELINE

15 November 1969 First Wendy’s Old Fashioned Hamburgers restaurant in Columbus, Ohio, U.S.A
December 31 1974 After 5 years, Wendy’s net income exceeded US$1 million and
revenues topped US$13 million. Total restaurant sales were nearly
US$25 million
September 23 1975 First international restaurant opened in Canada
December 1988 Wendy’s opens in New Zealand, in Te Atatu
January 1990 Otara opens
May 1992 Takapuna opens
June 1992 Queen St opens
December 1994 Pakuranga opens
December 1995 Panmure opens
April 1996 Mt Wellington opens
May 1996 Greenlane opens
September 1996 Constellation Dr opens
December 1997 Papakura opens
February 1998 Dominion Rd opens
August 2000 Royal Oak opens
May 2001 Manukau opens
September 2001 The Hub opens
2002 Wendy’s New Zealand wins the “EFFIE Award for Sustained Success” August 2003 Lynfield opens
June 2004 Whangaparaoa opens
July 2006 Gate Pa, Tauranga opens
2008 Wendy’s becomes sponsor of the Vodafone Warriors
2008 Wendy’s New Zealand wins the Diamond Award for “International Marketer of the Year” award from Wendy’s International for third time
2010 The Hub wins MBA (mop Bucket Attitude) in the Asia Pacific region, judged top restaurant outside the United States
December 2010 First Wendy’s restaurant opened in South Island in Christchurch
February 2011 Christchurch restaurant damaged in 22 February earthquake and is red stickered inside the red zone. Building was demolished in September 2011
August 2011 Fairy Springs, Rotorua opens
November 2011 Paraparaumu opens
2012 Wendy’s becomes Top Tier sponsor of the Vodafone Warriors,
with rights to have logo on the NRL teams’ shorts for year
November 2012 Palmerston North opens
2013 Stores scheduled to open in Hamilton (Killarney St and Te Rapa), Whangarei and Hornby Christchurch

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