Arthur Treacher's
Encyclopedia
Arthur Treacher's Fish and Chips is a fast food
seafood
restaurant chain.
, there were 45 stores in 8 northern states of the United States which serve fish and chips
. Its main competitors are Long John Silver's
and Captain D's
. To this day many locations have been cobranded with Nathan's.
(1894–1975), an English
character actor
who was known as "the perfect butler
" for his performances as Jeeves
, as a butler in several Shirley Temple
films, and the role of Constable Jones in Mary Poppins
. He served as a spokesman for the restaurant chain in its early years, underscoring the British
character of its food. It is unclear if Treacher had a financial interest in the company; in interviews he refused to say whether he did or not.
filets in newspaper for customers to take with them in 1865. Over one hundred years later, Arthur Treacher's Inc. purchased Malin's of Bow and opened the first Arthur Treacher's restaurant. The location was Columbus, Ohio, and the year was 1969.
, who sold his Colonel Sanders franchises back to that company for $3,000,000 and went on to found Wendy's
, and L. S. Hartzog, who at the time ran a chain of bakeries selling biscuits to Colonel Sanders franchisees nationally.
, Captain D's
and Skipper's all started about the same time. Aided by Arthur Treacher's advertisements, these companies introduced British fish and chips to America.
Arthur Treacher's and Long John Silver's expanded to become the largest purveyors of fish and chips in the late 1970s.
s". Cod prices went from the low $2 range to the mid-$3 range, which sent the low-priced fish restaurants into a tailspin, and all the companies retrenched.
. They immediately replaced the Icelandic codfish with less expensive pollock
.
Up until 1979, Icelandic Brand Seafood's Coldwater Seafood Corporation located in Cambridge Maryland—privately owned by Icelandic Seafood corporation—processed nearly all of the cod fish portions used by Arthur Treacher's Restaurants. At the time, Coldwater Seafood processed approximately 68 million pounds of Icelandic Seafood north Atlantic fish species annually—of which, approximately one million pounds of cod fish was processed for Arthur Treacher's Seafood Restaurants.
. The company went into bankruptcy in 1983, and emerged again in 1985. It was merged into a shell company
by Jim Cataland.
From 1985 to 1993, Cataland started to grow the company again, albeit very slowly, followed in 1993 by an investment in the company by a group of investors. The investment was going to be used to bring out a new, more modern, and updated seafood concept. The money was used to buy a large number of stores and move the company from its base operations in Youngstown, Ohio
, to Jacksonville, Florida
. The company retains a sizable presence in the Youngstown area today.
The company did experiment with cobranding
, forming an alliance with Arby's
(which got its start in the Youngstown suburb of Boardman
) for cobranded locations. One such location existed in Breezewood, Pennsylvania
. However, by the late 1990s, Arby's parent Triarc
removed the Arthur Treacher's portions of its cobranded Arby's. Today, Arthur Treacher's primary cobranding partner is with parent company Nathan's Famous
.
bought the exclusive rights to market the Arthur Treacher's trademark and sell their products co-branded with Nathan's own concepts Kenny Rogers Roasters
and Miami Subs
in 2006; however, PAT Franchise Systems has a license agreement with NF Treachers to sell Arthur Treacher's Fish and Chips franchises in eight states.
, TRUFOODS LLC operates the following franchises:
Fast food
Fast food is the term given to food that can be prepared and served very quickly. While any meal with low preparation time can be considered to be fast food, typically the term refers to food sold in a restaurant or store with preheated or precooked ingredients, and served to the customer in a...
seafood
Seafood
Seafood is any form of marine life regarded as food by humans. Seafoods include fish, molluscs , crustaceans , echinoderms . Edible sea plants, such as some seaweeds and microalgae, are also seafood, and are widely eaten around the world, especially in Asia...
restaurant chain.
, there were 45 stores in 8 northern states of the United States which serve fish and chips
Fish and chips
Fish and chips is a popular take-away food in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and Canada...
. Its main competitors are Long John Silver's
Long John Silver's
Long John Silver's, Inc. is a United States-based fast-food restaurant that specializes in seafood. The name and concept were inspired by Robert Louis Stevenson's book Treasure Island. Formerly a division of Yum! Brands, Inc., the company was divested to a group of franchisees in 2011.-History:The...
and Captain D's
Captain D's
Captain D’s is a U.S.-based chain of fast-food restaurants, specializing in seafood and fish and chips. The restaurant also features a low-carbohydrate menu. The restaurant chain's headquarters is located in Nashville, Tennessee....
. To this day many locations have been cobranded with Nathan's.
History
The chain was named after Arthur TreacherArthur Treacher
Arthur Veary Treacher was an English actor born in Brighton, East Sussex, England.Treacher was a veteran of World War I. After the war, he established a stage career and in 1928, he went to America as part of a musical-comedy revue called Great Temptations...
(1894–1975), an English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
character actor
Character actor
A character actor is one who predominantly plays unusual or eccentric characters. The Oxford English Dictionary defines a character actor as "an actor who specializes in character parts", defining character part in turn as "an acting role displaying pronounced or unusual characteristics or...
who was known as "the perfect butler
Butler
A butler is a domestic worker in a large household. In great houses, the household is sometimes divided into departments with the butler in charge of the dining room, wine cellar, and pantry. Some also have charge of the entire parlour floor, and housekeepers caring for the entire house and its...
" for his performances as Jeeves
Jeeves
Reginald Jeeves is a fictional character in the short stories and novels of P. G. Wodehouse, being the valet of Bertie Wooster . Created in 1915, Jeeves would continue to appear in Wodehouse's works until his final, completed, novel Aunts Aren't Gentlemen in 1974, making him Wodehouse's most famous...
, as a butler in several Shirley Temple
Shirley Temple
Shirley Temple Black , born Shirley Jane Temple, is an American film and television actress, singer, dancer, autobiographer, and former U.S. Ambassador to Ghana and Czechoslovakia...
films, and the role of Constable Jones in Mary Poppins
Mary Poppins (film)
Mary Poppins is a 1964 musical film starring Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke, produced by Walt Disney, and based on the Mary Poppins books series by P. L. Travers with illustrations by Mary Shepard. The film was directed by Robert Stevenson and written by Bill Walsh and Don DaGradi, with songs by...
. He served as a spokesman for the restaurant chain in its early years, underscoring the British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
character of its food. It is unclear if Treacher had a financial interest in the company; in interviews he refused to say whether he did or not.
Origins
Malin's of Bow, an enterprising restaurant in London, England, began wrapping fried whitefishWhitefish (fisheries term)
Whitefish or white fish is a fisheries term referring to several species of demersal fish with fins, particularly cod , whiting , and haddock , but also hake , pollock , or others...
filets in newspaper for customers to take with them in 1865. Over one hundred years later, Arthur Treacher's Inc. purchased Malin's of Bow and opened the first Arthur Treacher's restaurant. The location was Columbus, Ohio, and the year was 1969.
Franchising
The franchise company was started in 1969 as National Fast Food Corp. National Fast Food's principals at the time included S. Robert Davis, a real estate developer who built and leased several Colonel Sanders Kentucky Fried Chicken properties, his friend Dave ThomasDave Thomas (American businessman)
David "Dave" Thomas was an American fast-food entrepreneur and philanthropist. Thomas was the founder and chief executive officer of Wendy's, a fast-food restaurant chain specializing in hamburgers...
, who sold his Colonel Sanders franchises back to that company for $3,000,000 and went on to found Wendy's
Wendy's
Wendy's is an international fast food chain restaurant founded by Dave Thomas on November 15, 1969, in Columbus, Ohio, United States. The company decided to move its headquarters to Dublin, Ohio, on January 29, 2006. It has been owned by Triarc since 2008...
, and L. S. Hartzog, who at the time ran a chain of bakeries selling biscuits to Colonel Sanders franchisees nationally.
Fisher Foods involvement
In 1970, Fisher Foods swapped capital with and licensed franchises from National, with a total of 550 franchises sold (106 to Fisher alone), but only 99 stores were actually in operation. Apparently the time was ripe for the fish franchise concept: Long John Silver'sLong John Silver's
Long John Silver's, Inc. is a United States-based fast-food restaurant that specializes in seafood. The name and concept were inspired by Robert Louis Stevenson's book Treasure Island. Formerly a division of Yum! Brands, Inc., the company was divested to a group of franchisees in 2011.-History:The...
, Captain D's
Captain D's
Captain D’s is a U.S.-based chain of fast-food restaurants, specializing in seafood and fish and chips. The restaurant also features a low-carbohydrate menu. The restaurant chain's headquarters is located in Nashville, Tennessee....
and Skipper's all started about the same time. Aided by Arthur Treacher's advertisements, these companies introduced British fish and chips to America.
Arthur Treacher's and Long John Silver's expanded to become the largest purveyors of fish and chips in the late 1970s.
Effect of the 'cod wars'
In the early 1970s, Britain and Iceland almost got into a war over fishing rights after Iceland unilaterally implemented the 200-mile (370 km) fishing limit. These events were called the "cod warCod War
The Cod Wars, also called the Icelandic Cod Wars , were a series of confrontations in the 1950s and 1970s between the United Kingdom and Iceland regarding fishing rights in the North Atlantic....
s". Cod prices went from the low $2 range to the mid-$3 range, which sent the low-priced fish restaurants into a tailspin, and all the companies retrenched.
Mrs. Paul's Seafood
Since the 1970s, Treacher's had been owned by Orange Co., a public company that was primarily in the orange futures trading business. It was sold in 1979 to Mrs. Paul's SeafoodMrs. Paul's
Mrs. Paul's is a brand of pre-packaged seafood products owned by Pinnacle Foods. The brand began in the 1940s and was owned by Campbell Soup until 1996....
. They immediately replaced the Icelandic codfish with less expensive pollock
Pollock
Pollock is the common name used for either of the two species of marine fish in the Pollachius genus. Both P. pollachius and P. virens are commonly referred to as pollock. Other names for P...
.
Up until 1979, Icelandic Brand Seafood's Coldwater Seafood Corporation located in Cambridge Maryland—privately owned by Icelandic Seafood corporation—processed nearly all of the cod fish portions used by Arthur Treacher's Restaurants. At the time, Coldwater Seafood processed approximately 68 million pounds of Icelandic Seafood north Atlantic fish species annually—of which, approximately one million pounds of cod fish was processed for Arthur Treacher's Seafood Restaurants.
Investor group
The company was subsequently bought by a group of investors and the corporate offices were relocated to Youngstown, OhioYoungstown, Ohio
Youngstown is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Mahoning County; it also extends into Trumbull County. The municipality is situated on the Mahoning River, approximately southeast of Cleveland and northwest of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania...
. The company went into bankruptcy in 1983, and emerged again in 1985. It was merged into a shell company
Shell (corporation)
A shell corporation is a company which serves as a vehicle for business transactions without itself having any significant assets or operations. Shell corporations are not in themselves illegal and have legitimate business purposes. However, they are a main component of the underground economy,...
by Jim Cataland.
From 1985 to 1993, Cataland started to grow the company again, albeit very slowly, followed in 1993 by an investment in the company by a group of investors. The investment was going to be used to bring out a new, more modern, and updated seafood concept. The money was used to buy a large number of stores and move the company from its base operations in Youngstown, Ohio
Youngstown, Ohio
Youngstown is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Mahoning County; it also extends into Trumbull County. The municipality is situated on the Mahoning River, approximately southeast of Cleveland and northwest of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania...
, to Jacksonville, Florida
Jacksonville, Florida
Jacksonville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Florida in terms of both population and land area, and the largest city by area in the contiguous United States. It is the county seat of Duval County, with which the city government consolidated in 1968...
. The company retains a sizable presence in the Youngstown area today.
The company did experiment with cobranding
Brand alliances
Brand alliances is a branding strategy used in a business alliance. Brand alliances are divided into three types:-Cobrands:Cobrands are the usage of two or more brands on one certain product...
, forming an alliance with Arby's
Arby's
Arby's is a fast food restaurant chain in the United States and Canada. Roark Capital Group owns 81.5% of the company, with Wendy's Company owning the other 18.5%. It is primarily known for selling roast beef sandwiches and curly fries. The Arby's menu also includes chicken sandwiches, appetizers,...
(which got its start in the Youngstown suburb of Boardman
Boardman Township, Mahoning County, Ohio
Boardman Township is one of the fourteen townships of Mahoning County, Ohio, United States. The 2000 census found 42,518 people in the township...
) for cobranded locations. One such location existed in Breezewood, Pennsylvania
Breezewood, Pennsylvania
Breezewood is an unincorporated town in Bedford County in south-central Pennsylvania.Along a traditional pathway for Native Americans, European settlers, and British troops during colonial times, in the early 20th century, the small valley that became known as Breezewood was a popular stopping...
. However, by the late 1990s, Arby's parent Triarc
Wendy's/Arby's Group
Wendy's Company is a holding company for the major fast food chain, Wendy's. Its headquarters are in Sandy Springs, Georgia. The company formerly was known as Deisel-Wemmer Co. , Deisel-Wemmer-Gilbert Corporation , DWG Cigar Corporation , DWG Corporation , Triarc Companies, Inc. and...
removed the Arthur Treacher's portions of its cobranded Arby's. Today, Arthur Treacher's primary cobranding partner is with parent company Nathan's Famous
Nathan's Famous
Nathan's Famous is a company that operates a chain of U.S.-based fast food restaurants specializing in hot dogs. The original Nathan's restaurant stands at the corner of Surf and Stillwell Avenues in the Coney Island neighborhood of the New York City borough of Brooklyn.-History:Nathan's began as...
.
TruFoods Systems
The company holding the Arthur Treacher's trademark was acquired by PAT Franchise Systems, a wholly owned subsidiary of TruFoods Systems, Inc., in 2002. Nathan's FamousNathan's Famous
Nathan's Famous is a company that operates a chain of U.S.-based fast food restaurants specializing in hot dogs. The original Nathan's restaurant stands at the corner of Surf and Stillwell Avenues in the Coney Island neighborhood of the New York City borough of Brooklyn.-History:Nathan's began as...
bought the exclusive rights to market the Arthur Treacher's trademark and sell their products co-branded with Nathan's own concepts Kenny Rogers Roasters
Kenny Rogers Roasters
Kenny Rogers Roasters is a chicken restaurant that was founded by country musician Kenny Rogers and former Kentucky governor John Y. Brown, Jr., who had also owned Kentucky Fried Chicken from 1964 to 1971. The menu was originally centered on wood-fired rotisserie chicken. After closing almost all...
and Miami Subs
Miami Subs Grill
Miami Subs Pizza and Grill is a privately held restaurant chain, based in the U. S. state of Florida. The chain has over 70 stores, the majority of which are in Florida, and the remainder elsewhere on the East Coast...
in 2006; however, PAT Franchise Systems has a license agreement with NF Treachers to sell Arthur Treacher's Fish and Chips franchises in eight states.
, TRUFOODS LLC operates the following franchises:
- Wall St. Deli
- Ritter's Frozen Custard
- Arthur Treacher's Fish and Chips
- Pudgie's Famous Chicken