You've probably seen this cute, red-head girl almost everywhere and had served you the best meal when you're on the road. I'm talking about Wendy's, which is a chain of fast food restaurants based in Dublin, Ohio and owned by the American corporation
Wendy's International, Inc. There are over 6,600 Wendy's restaurants worldwide at the moment.
Wendy's was founded by Dave Thomas in 1969. Wendy is the nickname of his 8-year old daughter, Melinda. The corporate headquarters is located in Dublin, Ohio, but the first restaurant was opened in Columbus, Ohio on November 15, 1969. Wendy's grew rapidly to open over 3,000 stores by 1985. However, by the mid-1980s some Wendy's restaurants became under-performing and closed, and in 1989, Dave Thomas came out of a
long retirement and started doing commercials for Wendy's and helped rebuild the restaurant until his death.
Despite the scandal that flared last year regarding a Anna Ayala claiming that she found a broken finger in the chili she ordered from Wendy's (which was later disproved, and Ayala was charged and convicted), Wendy's International, Inc. is still one of the world's largest restaurant operating and franchising companies, with $8.3 billion in 2001 system-wide sales, more than 8,200 restaurants and two quality brands -- Wendy's and Tim Hortons, the latter founded in 1964 by Tim Horton and Ron Joyce and is the largest coffee and
fresh baked goods chain in Canada.
