Sandy's Franchise Information

Sandy's Franchise Information

Sandy's franchisees were offered the best any franchise had to offer and the proof was in the taste and the high quality foods on the menu. A franchisee did not have to purchase specifically from Sandy's corporate, however to maximize profit and to keep high standards, this was definitely the way to go.

In the early 1970's, Sandy's had two versions of the restaurant to offer to prospective investors, the mini and the maxi. By this time, Hardees and Sandy's were beginning to streamline together and it was obvious from the architec's rendition of the two buildings. The mini was for smaller markets or segments of a city while the maxi was built for power... bring in as many people as possible, serve them in a timely manner and give them a quality dining experience.

As you can see from this picture, Sandy's and Hardees were beginning to morph together. The prototype sign out front is definitively Sandy's, however, the building itself is Hardees all the way. Around the middle of 1971, Sandy's and Hardees were discussing a merger and according to the original press release regarding this which occured on or around December 2nd, 1971, Sandy's and Hardees were supposed to carry on with each keeping their original names. This merger played out with Hardees buying out all shares of Sandy's which at the time was in need of cash due to rising cost of the fast food industry as well as a major expansion of competition including Burger King and in particular McDonalds. As a result, in 1972, Brick Lundberg, former CEO of Sandy's returned from retirement in order to pursuade the Sandy's franchisees to change completely into Hardees. By 1974, most if not all had switched and it was the beginning of the end for Sandy's as we know it.

Sandy's at the time was exploding with growth across the country yet was still primarily in the midwest. Hardees was mostly in the east and the two companies lines were about to be crossed. This was one reason that the aspect of a merger was attractive to both restaurants. Sandy's was ready to either merge or to produce stock offerings to the general public to generate capital for the explosive nationwide growth as well as making the shareholders stock more attractive.

Even though both were going to retain their names and identity, apparently, both Sandy's and Hardees decided to use the same blueprints for their locations to cut cost, or perhaps Sandy's knew that they were going to be changing into Hardees and this made the change go much smoother.

In any case, I believe that Sandy's and Hardees at this point in time were using their 500+ stores power, using the same architec (Sandy's had used the same architec {from Kewanee, Illinois, also an investor in some locations} since the corporation began in 1958) thus slashing one-half of the cost of building new prototype stores. Unfortunately, Sandy's became Hardees overnight in many locations, running as Hardees in the old classic Sandy's buildings before tearing them down and rebuilding them. Thus the prototype building will forever be associated with Hardees. When one looks at the blueprints for the new prototype Sandy's and compares them to the prototype restaurant seen here, one very obvious thing is missing. The Sandy's Scottish dancing girl icon is no where to be found on the building.

Here is a rare, amazing light cover with the Sandy's girl head icon imprinted on it. This cover measures approximately two and one-half feet across in diameter. Was this for the corporate headquarters? No, this was for the new prototype stores. If you click on the picture, you will see how it was used. This was the new build-out direction Sandy's was taking before all things came to an end.

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