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CKE Restaurants Holdings surpasses 3,500 restaurants worldwide

August 18, 2014

The opening of a Hardee's in Marassi, Egypt, and a Carl’s Jr. in Conroe, Texas, mark major milestones for CKE Restaurants Holdings Inc.

Opened in late July, the Marassi Hardee's is CKE's 3500th restaurant worldwide. It is owned by franchisee Kuwait Food Company, which owns another 274 Hardee's in the region.

"The opening of our 3,500th restaurant is an incredible achievement and demonstrates how much Hardee's and Carl's Jr. fans across the world love our premium quality food and service," CKE Holdings CEO Andy Puzder said in a press release.

International growth

"Fifty-eight percent of [our] new restaurant openings since Fiscal Year 2011 have come from outside the U.S.," said Puzder. "Consumers across the world are hungry for a better burger as well as superior service, and we deliver both. Our accelerated expansion overseas is also thanks to the leadership of Ned Lyerly, who we recently promoted to president of our international division."

CKE's largest market outside the U.S. is in the Middle East under the Hardee's banner. The second-largest market for CKE is Mexico under the Carl's Jr. banner. Carl's Jr. franchised restaurants recently opened in new markets in Denmark and the Bahamas; it is targeting Australia, India, Japan, Korea, Southeast Asia and Europe as future growth markets.

Domestic expansion

The company's 3,501st restaurant to open is a Carl’s Jr. in Conroe, Texas, owned by Zubha Foods LLC, which operates six other Carl's Jr. restaurants in Houston and San Antonio.

Forty-two percent of CKE's new restaurant growth has been in the U.S. since 2011, with 90 percent of those restaurants opened by franchisees. Currently operating in 42 states, the company and its franchisees have opened 84 new Carl's Jr. and Hardee's restaurants in 24 different states over the past 12 months.

"We see a lot of prime territory for domestic expansion, and we have great partners eager to grow with us," Puzder said. "Very soon, we'll be celebrating Hardee's highly anticipated return to the Northeast as franchise locations open first in New York, New Jersey and then Connecticut."

"Our restaurants in Marassi and Conroe may be separated by an ocean and nearly 7,000 miles, but they're connected by the same commitment to quality and entrepreneurial spirit that exists among all our international and domestic franchise partners as together we continue growing our premier global brand," he said. "We're big, we're bold and it works."