Misplaced Pages

Habit Burger & Grill

Company type	Subsidiary
Traded as	Nasdaq: HABT
Industry	Fast casual restaurant
Founded	November 15, 1969; 55 years ago (1969-11-15) Santa Barbara, California, U.S.
Headquarters	Irvine, California, U.S.
Number of locations	372
Area served	United States, Cambodia, China, United Arab Emirates
Key people	Shannon Hennessy (CEO) Tiffany Furman (CFO)
Products	Chargrilled Burgers sandwiches salads kids meals frozen desserts beverages
Revenue	US$402 million (2021)
Number of employees	6,093 (2021)
Parent	Yum! Brands
Website	habitburger.com

Habit Burger & Grill is a California-based fast casual restaurant chain that specializes in chargrilled hamburgers. The company also sells other typical fast-casual fare. It was founded in 1969 at Santa Barbara, California, and its headquarters are in Irvine, California.

In March 2020, Yum! Brands, the parent company of KFC, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell, acquired The Habit Burger Grill.

History

The Habit Burger Grill was founded on November 15, 1969, in Santa Barbara County, California, as a family-owned business. It originally operated under the name Hamburger Habit.

In 1980, Brent and Bruce Reichard purchased the original location in Goleta. A second location opened in Ventura in 1997. They gradually grew the chain to 17 units in Southern California.

In 2007, KarpReilly, a private equity firm, acquired a majority ownership in the company and began to rapidly expand the chain, including franchising. Not included in the sale were the eight locations in Santa Barbara County, California, which remained under the ownership of the Reichard brothers.

In 2014, Habit had 109 locations either open for business or under construction, including an expansion into Seattle. At that time, the company was one of the fastest-growing fast food chains in the United States, with a 40% sales increase from 2012 to 2013. In November 2014, the company raised $83.7 million in an initial public offering. The share price immediately doubled. By 2016, growth had slowed significantly, in line with the burger business.

In 2017, the company announced plans to expand into the United Kingdom with 30 restaurants.

In March 2020, Yum! Brands, the parent company of KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and Wingstreet, acquired Habit. The brothers decided to retire and sell their remaining restaurants to Yum! Brands in 2021. The operations shifted in March 2022.

July 2024 saw its restaurants switch soft drinks, as a result of Yum! Brands' acquisition, from Coca-Cola to Pepsi.

On August 28, 2024, the company renamed itself from The Habit Burger Grill to Habit Burger & Grill.

Reception

In mid-2014, The Habit's "Charburger" was named the best burger in America by Consumer Reports, a nonprofit organization dedicated to independent product testing, scoring an 8.1 out of 10 among 53,745 participants.

See also

• List of hamburger restaurants

References

1. "Locations". Habit Burger Grill.
2. ^ "Contact us". Habit Burger & Grill.
3. ^ Hile, K. (2016). The Handy California Answer Book. The Everest Files. Visible Ink Press. p. 335. ISBN 978-1-57859-623-2.
4. "Yum Brands". Insider. Retrieved 9 November 2023.
5. Ewen, Beth (29 March 2021). "Yum Brands Purchases The Habit Burger for $375M". FT. Retrieved 9 November 2023.
6. "Yum! Brands high on The Habit". Food business news. Retrieved 9 November 2023.
7. "About us". The Habit Burger Grill.
8. ^ Kettmann, Matt; Yamamura, Jean (January 7, 2020). "Habit Burger Deal Doesn't Include Santa Barbara County". Santa Barbara Independent. Retrieved May 26, 2020.
9. ^ Hayden, Tyler (2017-06-29). "The Habit's Secret Sauce". The Santa Barbara Independent. Retrieved 2024-09-24.
10. "The Habit Hires Bendel as CEO". KarpReilly (Press release). June 3, 2008.
11. Ho, Vanessa (July 11, 2014). "America's 'best burger' coming to Seattle". Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
12. Hughes, Paul (August 12, 2014). "Irvine Burger Chain Reportedly Mulls IPO". American City Business Journals.
13. "SEC Form 424B4, 333-199394 IPO Prospectus". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. November 19, 2014.
14. Gayathri, Amrutha; Sachin, Sai (November 19, 2014). "Burger chain Habit Restaurants prices IPO at $18 a share". Reuters.
15. Huddleston, Tom Jr. (November 20, 2014). "Burger chain Habit's IPO sizzles in debut". Fortune.
16. Dimri, Neha; Ramakrishnan, Sruthi (November 20, 2014). "As diners line up, another fast casual chain sizzles on debut". Reuters.
17. Taylor, Kate (July 14, 2016). "Shares of the restaurant chain that serves the best burger in America are in a tailspin". Business Insider.
18. Scott, Ellen (November 9, 2017). "Habit burgers are coming to London". Metro.
19. "Yum! Brands Completes Acquisition of The Habit Restaurants, Inc" (Press release). PR Newswire. March 18, 2020.
20. "Original Habit Grill Founder Sells Remaining Local Restaurants". Edhat. 2021-12-14. Retrieved 2021-12-15.
21. Kettmann, Matt (2021-12-14). "Habit Burger Founders Sell Santa Barbara Restaurants". The Santa Barbara Independent. Retrieved 2021-12-15.
22. Buck, Fielding (28 August 2024). "The Habit Burger Grill changes its name". East Bay Times. Retrieved 28 August 2024.
23. Spiegel, Alison (July 24, 2014). "The Country's Best Burger Comes From A Chain You've Probably Never Heard Of". HuffPost.
24. Comoletti, Jill (July 10, 2014). "A Burger Chain You've Probably Never Heard Of Was Just Named Best In America". Business Insider.
25. "Best and worst fast-food restaurants in America". Consumer Reports. July 2014.

External links

• Official website

• Food
• Companies

• Yum! Brands
• 1969 establishments in California
• Companies based in Irvine, California
• Companies formerly listed on the Nasdaq
• Cuisine of the Western United States
• Restaurants established in 1969
• 2007 mergers and acquisitions
• 2020 mergers and acquisitions
• Economy of the Southwestern United States
• Fast casual restaurants
• Fast-food chains of the United States
• Fast-food franchises
• Fast-food hamburger restaurants
• Regional restaurant chains in the United States
• Restaurants in California
• 2014 initial public offerings