HISTORY
1993 "Wszystko Jest Możliwe! is born with first Pizza Hut
In May 1993 Henry McGovern and Don Kendall jr move to Poland with the idea to
be a part of the history being made in CEE from the collapse of the USSR.
On July 2nd they win the auction to buy Rynek 48 in Wroclaw, thus begins the
company and the first WJM story. With the idea to rent the ground floor
to a restaurant they approach PepsiCo who says “no” but offer the franchise for
Pizza Hut. Donald Kendall sr offers to be a partner, an opportunity not
to be missed so our entry into the restaurant business begins. The
company - American Retail Systems (ARS) is formed with four partners (Donald M.
Kendall, Donald M. Kendall jr., Christian R. Eisenbeiss and Henry J. McGovern).
The development of Pizza Hut and the reconstruction of Rynek 48 offers so many
challenges that our WJM belief is born!
WJM is proven and seeps deep into our culture when Rynek Pizza Hut does open on
time on Nov. 9, 1993. A huge success in Wroclaw leads to ARS obtaining
the rights for Szczecin as well and the 2nd restaurant opens there in May 1994.
We learn a hard lesson from the failure of our second business, Xerox Business
Centers.
PepsiCo decides Poland is a strategic market in the world and begins rapid
development of KFC & Pizza Hut.
1995 "Our first KFC"
In November of 1995, we open our first KFC in Szczecin. We face an unending
number of problems: electrical failures, leaky roofs, equipment breakdowns. But
our biggest problem is a good one – trying to keep enough chicken in the
restaurant to satisfy the huge numbers of customers pouring in the door. It was
hard work, but our KFC business was off and running!
1997 "Core Values are born"
Our Core Values are born with the first LUA. The “GE Way” & “Built to
Last” are required reading and shape the beginning of ARS becoming a company
built on vision and values! The company decides to focus 100% of its attention
on the restaurant business, and adds Poznan and Bydgoszcz.
1998 "People – Brand – Scale. We become international"
We become international with the
acquisition of Yum’s business in Czech Republic. This is our first acquisition
and our first turn around; and teaches us the lesson and importance of
People-Brands-Scale. With only six restaurants the business had lost $8 million
but was quickly turned around to be extremely profitable by focusing on getting
the right people, building the brand to be better than M and then building
scale.
2000 "AmRest NV is born through the merger of ARS and YUM!"
This bring 28 restaurants from ARS and
52 from YUM together, but more importantly it moves ARS from being highly
profitable to a loss as it faces the challenge of turning around an accumulated
$60 million loss from YUM. A few tough years follow as ARS learns to deal with
becoming a big company. Getting our values and WJM belief to spread from
1500 people to 3200 really challenges us. A focus on People-Brands-Scale
prevails and a powerhouse in CEE is created!
2001 "More acquisitions"
AmRest buys International Fast
Food Polska Sp. z o.o. (IFFP), the operator of Burger King in Poland. Out of
the 23 Burger King restaurants acquired, the Company closed 6 and rebranded the
remaining 17 into KFC.
2004 "Our operating principles and DOS+ are born"
Combined with significant improvement in
marketing we begin to enjoy a significant increase in our loyal customers.
2005 "The freedom to become what we dream to be"
In April AmRest successfully debuted on
the stock market and Yum exits the company as a shareholder; a year later
the share price increased by 100%.
In May we acquired 8 Big Food restaurants in Czech Republic, and rebranded them
into KFC.
2006 "Stepping out"
In March the first FreshPoint restaurant
was established in Warsaw.
In April the first Rodeo Drive restaurant was opened in Wroclaw.
In May AmRest signed a contract on the acquisition of Kentucky Systems kft, the
owner of 13 Pizza Hut and 4 KFC restaurants in Hungary.
2007 “Wow WJM really is true. Two new brands and three new countries!"
In March we bring Burger King back to
Poland!
At the same time we become partners with Starbucks; a huge achievement and
recognition of the special culture AmRest has built.
In July we enter Russia with the acquisition of 22 KFCs and 19 Pizza Huts
in three cities – Petersburg, Moscow and Kazan.
In November the first AmRest KFC restaurant on the Bulgarian market was opened
in Sofia.
Also in November the first KFC restaurant in Belgrade Serbia was opened.
2008 “Starbucks,Russia, USA!”
In January our first Starbucks store was opened in Prague Czech Republic, on
Malostranske Namesti.
AmRest is consolidating the KFC market in Russia - at the beginning of the year
AmRest signed the final agreements for the acquisition of 14 additional KFC
restaurants in Moscow.
In May another milestone in AmRest history: the Company enters the US by
acquiring 80% equity stake in the second largest Applebee’s® franchisee in the
United States operating 104 restaurants.
Burger King opens in Bulgaria: Czech Republic, Slovakia and Slovenia are
announced to soon follow.
2009 "Continuous growth”
We have already 436 restaurants! On April 7th we opened first
Starbucks in Poland – in Warsaw.
2010 "New investor – Warburg Pincus"
This time our
efforts have been appreciated by a premier private equity firm, Warburg Pincus.
After a long and comprehensive due diligence process, Warburg Pincus learned
that we have a unique culture and unparalleled opportunities to achieve
significant growth and offered to invest over 300 million pln for a 24.99%
shareholding in AmRest. Our next success is
opening first Starbucks in Budapest in Hungary!
2011 "Tagliatella on board!"
AmRest
announced the acquisition of a wonderful company in Spain, Restauravia. This
acquisition was a wonderful demonstration of our belief in “Wszystko Jest
Możliwe”! Restauravia operates 30 KFC’s and an Italian casual dining concept
named Tagliatella. We feel that this concept has significant, international,
growth potential and we plan to at least double the number of Tagliatella
restaurants within 5 years.
2012 We run 684 restaurants. 86 operated by our franchisees
