The Major Baking Company That Owned Burger King From 1967 To 1988

In 1967, Burger King was the third-largest fast food chain in America with an eye on taking the number two spot behind McDonald's. Pillsbury, the company most famous for crescent rolls and a Doughboy mascot, bought the chain for $18 million. That's nearly $180 million in 2026. According to Kantar, Burger King's brand value was about $7.7 billion in 2023. At the time, Pillsbury made what seemed like a good investment. However, the company lost control of Burger King in a hostile takeover by Grand Metropolitan in 1988.

Burger King was founded in 1954 and introduced its famous Whopper in 1957. When Pillsbury took over, there were 274 Burger King locations across the country. By 1981, it had over 3,000 locations and had bumped up to second place in the fast food world. By 1989, there were over 5,300 locations in America.

The franchise appeared to be performing well in the early 1980s, but within a few years, franchisees were expressing unhappiness with how Pillsbury ran the company. "Burger King is a strong restaurant concept that has survived in spite of itself, in spite of bad promotions, poor marketing strategies, inconsistent operations and shoddy management," one franchisee told the New York Times in 1988. In 2012, another New York Times article stated Pillsbury "didn't have a clue about how to run a restaurant chain."

Burger King franchisees were expressing dissatisfaction with Pillsbury as Grand Metropolitan was trying to buy the parent company out. Pillsbury resisted, but in the end, Grand Metropolitan won, acquiring Burger King in the process.

Pillsbury had a contentious relationship with franchisees early on. Before the Pillsbury acquisition, the founders of Burger King had been fairly lax in controlling how franchisees ran the business. Store appearance, food quality, and operating procedures varied by franchisee, resulting in little consistency for customers. Pillsbury tried to rein that in and met resistance. Some franchisees even wanted to gain control of the whole company, buying up other franchises and expanding territory. Pillsbury responded by suing franchisees for contract violations.

The company introduced stricter rules to limit expansion and reduce franchisee autonomy. This approach worked for a time, and the chain grew. Management was never consistent, however. Burger King went through five CEOs between 1977 and 1987. Restaurants were criticized for being dirty and offering poor service. Quality was inconsistent, and customers complained about long wait times. Pillsbury's tenure at the helm had gone off the rails in many ways. More than one financial writer portrayed Burger King as a means to a financial end for parent companies that profited at the expense of franchisees.

Profits saw a massive decline of over 50% from 1986 to 1988, and Burger King's marketing was criticized for being ineffectual. The "Where's Herb?" campaign was considered a blunder and cost the company $40 million. It was followed by the "We Do It Like You'd Do It" campaign that cost $200 million and led to sales that actually trended down across the country.

Today, Burger King is owned by Restaurant Brands International, and the chain is experiencing growth. It fell from number two to eight in fast food rankings, but the King keeps on going.