Wimpy (restaurant)

Wimpy is a UK chain of fast food hamburger restaurants.

Formation

The American Gold Eddie had in the 1930s, the idea of ​​establishing a fast-food restaurant chain in Chicago. It was named after the cartoon character greedy " J. Wellington Wimpy " from Popeye, whose favorite food is hamburgers. After the war, won gold the English company Joseph Lyons & Co. of its business idea, they bought Wimpy and moved its headquarters to London. Until the 1970s it expanded very successful with 1,000 stations in more than 20 countries, especially in the Commonwealth, then started after the invasion of American fast -food giant to Europe a more difficult time and Wimpy moved four times in 15 years, the owner, for example, in 1977 United Biscuits and 1989 at that Burger King owner of Grand Metropolitan (now Diageo ).

In 2007, the British parent company was taken over by the South African conglomerate Famous Brands, which had already purchased Wimpy South Africa. In South Africa, there are currently about 500 branches, over 300 in the UK, global figures are not available.