Burger King Corporate Office

Burger King began in 1953 in Jacksonville, Florida as Insta-Burger King.  The company was founded by Keith J. Kramer and Matthew Burns.

In 1957, the Whopper is introduced.

The company was purchased by David Edgerton and James McLamore in 1959 and renamed to Burger King.

By 1967, there were over 250 Burger King locations and the company was purchased by the Pillsbury Company.

In 1975, the company introduces drive-thru windows.

In 1989, Grand Metropolitan PLC acquired Pillsbury and Burger King.

In 1997, Grand Metropolitan merges with Guinness & Co to form Diageo PLC.

In 2002, the Burger King is purchased from Diageo by Texas Pacific, Bain Capital, and Goldman Sachs.

In 2006, the company goes public.

In 2010, Burger King is acquired by 3G Capital and taken private.

The company rolled out “Mood Meals” designed to compete with McDonald’s Happy Meals on May 1, 2019. Mood Meals include slogans like DGAF and Pissed Off. 

Today, Burger King is one of the largest fast food chains in the world.  There are over 15,000 restaurants in 100 countries.  Burger King introduced their vegetarian burger, called The Impossible Whopper, at the end of April 2019.

A video that has gone viral shows a Florida Burger King employee cleaning a table with a dirty floor mop. Burger King’s response was that this practice was “unacceptable.”

In July 2020, a judge dismissed a class action lawsuit in which vegans say they were deceived by the company’s calim regarding the non-meat Impossible Burger and were horrified to discover that they were cooked on the same grill as regular burgers.

In 2015, the company had an estimated annual revenue of $4.05 billion and employs more than 35,000 persons. Company headquarters is located in Miami, Florida.