Wimpy boost as franchisees return
WIMPY International, headed by Max Woolfenden, will next month break the 250-restaurant barrier thanks to the return to the fold of former franchisees Joe Parness and George Osztreicher.
The pair's recent acquisition of Tulsa Holdings - also a Wimpy franchisee until its decision to set up Great British Burger - will see the conversion of another 12 or 13 restaurants to the Wimpy system.
They now become the biggest Wimpy franchisee since Allied Restaurants sold its 20 restaurants to Grand Metropolitan in January 1990.
Ironically, it was as an employee of Tulsa in the 1970s that Mr Parness began his long association with Wimpy. Nine of the Great British Burger outlets were originally Wimpy counter-service outlets.
The Parness/Osztreicher partnership originally ran a number of Wimpy table-service restaurants in the 1980s, gradually moving to counter-service operations.
When GrandMet bought Wimpy in 1989 the partnership resisted conversion to its Burger King brand and entered into lengthy litigation with GrandMet, claiming franchisor support for Wimpy had been withdrawn.
Eventually the pair reached a settlement whereby they sold six of their 11 Wimpy outlets to GrandMet, disposed of two others separately and converted the other three to Burger Kings.
Their business interests today consist of 15 Wimpys and three Burger Kings, and they have ambitious expansion plans for both brands, including the opening of a drive-thru.
The latest conversions will comfortably take Wimpy through the 250-restaurant barrier, as against 200 at the time of Mr Woolfenden's £20m management buyout from GrandMet in March 1990.
