Burger Ranch to take over all local branches of Burger King

Romance between Israel and US fast food chain loses its flame.

By RUTH EGLASH
Burger King logo 311 (photo credit: Courtesy)
Burger King logo 311
(photo credit: Courtesy)
Another US fast food chain will be closing its doors in Israel this summer after apparently failing to capture the nation’s affections and losing out to its local competitor.
Burger King, known for its flame-grilled oversized hamburger, theWhopper, will follow in the footsteps of a long line of Americaneateries, including Starbucks, Dunkin’ Donuts and Wendy’s, that did notsucceed in the Israeli market despite their popularity in the US andother countries across the globe.
Orgad Holdings, the company’s local franchisee, announced Sunday thatafter nearly two decades here, Burger King would cease its operationsin Israel by August.
Orgad has owned Burger King locally since 2005. Just over a year ago,it bought out the local hamburger chain, Burger Ranch, for more thanNIS 100 million.
In a press release, the company said that recent research indicatedthat the Israeli style of hamburgers was far more popular and that allbranches of Burger King would be transformed into Burger Ranch. Thereare currently 107 branches of the two hamburger restaurants – 55 BurgerRanches and 52 Burger Kings.
“All the research carried out over the past few months shows beyond adoubt that the taste of Burger Ranch is the preferred taste for mostIsraelis,” Orgad directors Eli and Yuval Orgad were quoted as saying inthe Hebrew media.
With its origins in South Africa, Burger Ranch made its way to Israelin the early 1970s, and by the end of that decade, it had two branchesin Tel Aviv. When McDonalds entered the fast food market here in 1993,Burger Ranch had nearly 50 restaurants and was the largest restaurantchain.
Not long afterward, the company’s founders sold out to the Paz gasolinecompany, which operated the company for nearly a decade. In 2006, Pazsold the chain to businessman Yossi Hoshinski, but when he diedsuddenly in 2008, the company went into bankruptcy. In October 2008,Burger King bought out the chain.