Taco Bell

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Taco Bell

Type	Wholly owned subsidiary
Founded	June 9, 1962 (Downey, California)
Headquarters	Irvine, California, United States
Key people	Glen Bell (founder) Greg Creed (president/CEO)
Industry	Fast Food
Products	Tacos, burritos, and other Tex-Mex cuisine-related fast food
Revenue	▲$1.8 billion USD (2005)
Employees	175,000+
Parent	Yum! Brands
Website	tacobell.com

Taco Bell is a restaurant chain based in Irvine, California. A subsidiary of Yum! Brands, Inc., it specializes in Mexican-style food and quick service.

Taco Bell serves tacos, burritos, quesadillas, nachos, and other specialty items such as the Crunchwrap Supreme, in addition to a wide variety of Big Bell Value Menu items. Taco Bell serves more than 2 billion consumers each year in more than 5,800 restaurants in the U.S. More than 80 percent of its restaurants are owned and operated by independent franchises. There are currently more than 278 restaurants operating in Canada, Guam, Aruba, Dominican Republic, Chile, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Puerto Rico, Ecuador, Asia, and Europe.

[edit] History

[edit] Founding and growth

Glen Bell, a former Marine, began the chain with his first restaurant in San Bernardino, California. He named it Bell's Drive-in. Glen Bell was 23 when he left the Marine Corps in 1946. He was an avid Mexican food take-out customer, and was aware of the hang-ups in ordering tacos to go from a full-service restaurant. He basically wanted to change the method of preparation. He began by selling various hot dogs, including a chili dog in a Mexican neighborhood. At the same time, he researched tacos. Glen Bell sold the El Tacos to his partners and built the first Taco Bell in Downey in 1962. Kermit Becky, a former L.A. policeman, bought the first Taco Bell franchise in 1964.

In 1978, the chain was sold to PepsiCo. It was spun off along with Pepsi's other fast food restaurant holdings as Tricon Global Restaurants in October 1997. Tricon became Yum! Brands in May 2002.^{[citations needed]}

Taco Bell has the largest sales per system unit in Yum!, having US$1.17 million sales per system unit, excluding licensees.^[1]

[edit] Controversies

In November 2006, Taco Bell made local headlines when 22 customers were sickened by the E. coli bacteria. The bacteria was traced to three New Jersey restaurants. While some people were hospitalized, none were severely harmed.^[2]

In February 2007, Taco Bell again made headlines in the New York metropolitan area when a Taco Bell/KFC restaurant in Manhattan was overrun by rats; footage of the rodents scurrying about were shown on local news. The location was closed by order of the Department of Health until the issues were resolved. The outbreak prompted the closure of several additional Taco Bell restaurants throughout the Northeastern United States.^[3]

[edit] Boycott

In March 2005, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) won a landmark victory in its national boycott of Taco Bell for human rights. Taco Bell agreed to meet all of the coalition's demands to improve wages and working conditions for Florida tomato pickers in its supply chain.^[4]

After four years of a tenacious and growing boycott, Taco Bell and Yum! Brands agreed to make an agreement called the CIW-Yum agreement with representatives of CIW at Yum! Brands headquarters.^[5]

The CIW-Yum agreement set several precedents, establishing:

• The first direct, ongoing payment by a fast-food industry leader to farm workers in its supply chain to address substandard farm-labor wages (nearly doubling the percentage of the final retail price that goes to the workers who pick the produce).

• The first enforceable Code of Conduct for agricultural suppliers in the fast-food industry (which includes the CIW, a worker-based organization, as part of the investigative body for monitoring worker complaints).

• Market incentives for agricultural suppliers willing to respect their workers’ human rights, even when those rights are not guaranteed by law;

• Full transparency for Taco Bell’s tomato purchases in Florida; the agreement commits Taco Bell to buy only from Florida growers who agree to the pass-through and to document and monitor the pass-through, providing complete records of Taco Bell’s Florida tomato purchases and growers’ wage records to the CIW.^[6]

[edit] Lawsuits

[edit] Chihuahua

A lawsuit filed in 1998 by Joseph Shields and Thomas Rinks alleged Taco Bell failed to pay them for use of the Chihuahua character they created. The men alleged that Taco Bell had breached payment on a contract after they worked with the restaurant chain for a year to develop the talking Chihuahua for use in marketing. The Chihuahua became a hit: In a commercial, the character bypasses a female Chihuahua for a Taco Bell taco and declares: "Yo quiero Taco Bell." The two men received $30.1 million in compensation^[7] plus nearly $12 million in additional interest three months later.^[8] Taco Bell in turn sued its ad agency TBWA saying it should have been aware of the conflicts. In 2009 a three-judge federal appeals panel ruled against Taco Bell.^[9]

[edit] 50 Cent

The rap artist 50 Cent filed a federal lawsuit against Taco Bell on July 23, 2008. The suit claims that his name was used in a print ad asking him to change his name to 79 Cent, 89 Cent or 99 Cent as a part of the "Why Pay More?" campaign. 50 Cent was not aware of the ad until it came out, while fake letters containing the name change request were sent to the news media for promotional purposes. He is seeking $4 million in damages. In turn, Taco Bell spokesman Rob Poetsch said they made a good faith, charitable offer of $10,000 to 50 Cent if he would change his name to 79, 89 or 99 Cent for one day and rap his order at a Taco Bell location.^[10]

[edit] Menu

[edit] Border Bell

In 1997, PepsiCo experimented with a new "fresh grill" concept, opening at least one Border Bell restaurant in Mountain View, California on El Camino Real (SR 82).^[11] In addition to a subset of the regular Taco Bell menu, Border Bell offered Mexican-inspired items like those available from Chevys Fresh Mex restaurants (then owned by PepsiCo), such as Chevys signature sweet corn tamalito pudding and a fresh salsa bar.

[edit] "Fresco-style" menu

In 2003, Taco Bell's current head of Public Relations Kassandra Marshall launched the "fresco-style" menu. ^[12] By ordering something fresco style, the item's cheese and/or sauce is replaced by the chain's fiesta salsa. Using this option cuts the fat in the product in half in some cases.^[13]

[edit] Reduction of trans fats

As of April, 2007, Taco Bell had switched to zero trans fat frying oil in all of its US single-branded locations.^[14]

[edit] Volcano Taco and Volcano Double Beef Burrito

Taco Bell revealed in June 2009 that it will be adding to its main menu the Volcano Double Beef Burrito and the Volcano Taco, a former limited-time item. ^[15]

[edit] Advertising

In March 2001, Taco Bell announced a promotion to coincide with the re-entry of the Mir space station. They towed a large target out into the Pacific Ocean, announcing that if the target was hit by a falling piece of Mir, every person in the United States would be entitled to a free Taco Bell taco. The company bought a sizable insurance policy for this gamble.^[16] No piece of the station struck the target.

In 2004, a local Taco Bell franchisee bought the naming rights to the Boise State Pavilion in Idaho and renamed the stadium Taco Bell Arena. [1]

In 2007 Taco Bell offered the "Steal a Base, Steal a Taco" promotion—if any player from either team stole a base in the 2007 World Series the company would give away free tacos to everyone in the United States in a campaign similar to the Mir promotion, albeit with a much higher likelihood of being realized. ^[17] After Jacoby Ellsbury of the Boston Red Sox stole a base in Game 2, the company paid out this promotion on October 30, 2007. This promotion was used again in the 2008 World Series, when Jason Bartlett of the Tampa Bay Rays stole a base during Game 1 at Tropicana Field, which was paid out on October 28, 2008.[2]

Taco Bell sponsors a promotion at home games for both the Portland Trail Blazers and the Cleveland Cavaliers in which everyone in attendance receives a coupon for a free Chalupa if the home team scores 100 points or more.^[18][19]

In 2009, Taco Bell introduced a music video style commercial entitled, "It's all about the Roosevelts". Featuring Varsity Fanclub's Bobby Edner, the rap music style commercial shows a group of friends gathering change as they drive toward Taco Bell. ^[20] The commercial represents Taco Bell's first foray into movie theater advertising, featuring the add during the opening previews of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and Public Enemies as well as screens in some movie theater lobbies. ^[21]

On July 1, 2009, Taco Bell has replaced 20-year sponsor McDonald's as the fast food partner of the NBA. Taco Bell and the NBA agreed on a 4 year deal allowing them to advertise on ABC, TNT and ESPN, and NBA-themed promotions. ^[22]

[edit] Outside the United States

[edit] Canada

Yum! Brands Canada, based in Vaughan, Ontario, operates the 175 stores in 7 provinces in Canada. Taco Bell first opened in Canada in 1981.

[edit] China

In 2003, Yum! Brands introduced the Taco Bell brand into People's Republic of China. The Chinese Taco Bell restaurants were not fast-food restaurants like other Taco Bells. Instead, they were full-service restaurants called Taco Bell Grande that are more analogous to a Mexican grill in the United States. In addition to the usual taco and burritos, Taco Bell Grande also served other Mexican cuisine like albóndigas (meatball soup), tomatillo grilled chicken, fajitas, and alcoholic drinks such as Margaritas. The chain had operated three restaurants in China, two in Shenzhen and one in Shanghai. However, the Shanghai location closed at the end of January 2008.^[23] One location in Shenzhen closed on February 20, 2008; the second location followed shortly after, closing on March 5, 2008.^[24]

[edit] Germany

There are no public Taco Bell locations in major German cities. Army and Air Force Exchange Service does operate several locations at major U.S. bases in southern Germany. These secure locations are at: Ramstein Air Base near Kaiserslautern, Mannheim Gartenstadt, Heidelberg Shopping Center, Schweinfurt Ledward Barracks, Grafenwöhr PX Complex/Shopping Center, Baumholder and Wiesbaden Hainerberg. Beginning with September 11, 2001, access for non-military customers was severely restricted.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Iceland

Taco Bell in Iceland is operated as a part of the KFC establishment in Hafnarfjörður, suburb of Reykjavík. It was established in late 2006, after the departure of the U.S. Navy from Naval Air Station Keflavik. A second location opened in the Ártúnshöfði part of Reykjavik in November 2008 ^[25]

[edit] India

In February 2009, The Caravan magazine reported that Taco Bell would open in India. The magazine reported that the local Taco Bell representatives refused to give out any information, stating in a written response to an inquiry: “Thanks for mailing your questions. We have discussed the same internally, and we don’t wish to respond to media queries with details at this stage.”^[26]

[edit] Mexico

After a failed attempt to enter the market in 1992 that finished with all the restaurants closing two years later, in September 2007 Taco Bell returned to that country. The first restaurant in the northern city of Monterrey is part of a plan to open between 8 and 10 more locations in 2008 and eventually reach 300 stores.^[27][28]

[edit] Philippines

Taco Bell opened its first Philippine branch on October 30, 2004 at the Gateway Mall in Cubao, Quezon City. Since then, the restaurant has added another branch at the TriNoma mall in Quezon City.^[29]

[edit] Spain

The first Taco Bell in Spain was opened at Naval Station Rota in 2004 and is available only to those authorized to access the naval base.^[30] The first Taco Bell for the general public was opened in the Islazul Shopping Mall, Madrid, in December 2008.^[31] Yum! Brands announced that it would open additional restaurants in Spain in early 2009 as part of a test trial for the European market.^[32][33]

[edit] United Arab Emirates

A Taco Bell opened in the United Arab Emirates in November 2008 in Dubai at the Dubai Mall.^[34] Another restaurant will be opened at the new Bawadi Mall in the city of Al Ain.

[edit] United Kingdom

The United Kingdom was the first European country with a Taco Bell. In 1986 a location was opened in London on Coventry Street (between Leicester Square and Piccadilly Circus) followed by a second location in Earls Court near the Earl's Court tube station. One other store opened in Uxbridge but all closed in the mid 1990s. Today the Coventry Street site is occupied by a branch of the sit-down restaurant chain TGI Friday's. In 1994 the university food provider Compass announced plans to open stores in its university and college sites. However only one store was opened in Birmingham University, no other stores were opened and the Birmingham site is now closed.^[35][36]

Yum! Brands has announced that it is considering reopening Taco Bell locations in the United Kingdom as part of a large planned expansion into Europe, with trial outlets opening first in Spain in early 2009. Yum! is taking advantage of the recent recession which has led to increasing sales at other fast food outlets, it also says that there is now a greater awareness of Mexican food in the UK and that it can be successful with improved menu offerings and marketing.^[37][38]

[edit] Use in Pop Culture

• In the futuristic action movie Demolition Man, Taco Bell is the only fast food company to survive the Franchise Wars. As a result, the only restaurants left have all become Taco Bells.

[edit] See also

• Priszm
• Taco Bell chihuahua
• Enchirito

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Taco Bell

• Official site.
• Canadian website.
• Taco Bell King, N.C. Website
• Taco Bell Wiki: A Taco Bell Wiki
• Viva Gorditas! Video of the Taco Bell Chihuahua
• Taco-Bell Sued By Sick Boy With E-Coli - FORBES
• Information from FDA

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