industry restaurants founded july 23 1964 ; 52 years ago 1964 07 23 boardman ohio u.s. founder forrest raffel leroy raffel headquarters sandy springs georgia u.s. number of locations 3 301 area served global key people paul brown ceo products fast food sandwiches roast beef angus beef chicken turkey salads french fries onion rings potato cakes mozzarella sticks soft drinks ice tea milkshakes desserts and a complete breakfast menu served daily from 6 00 am until 10 30 am services franchising revenue us 1.2637 billion 2007 1 operating income us 9.4 million 2007 1 net income us 16.1 million 2007 1 owner roark capital group 81.5 % ; the wendy s company 18.5 % number of employees 74 000 2013 2 website www.arbys.com arby s restaurant group inc. rbiz is the second largest quick service sandwich chain in the u.s. in terms of units with more than 3 300 restaurants system wide and third in terms of revenue . 3 roark capital group acquired the company in july 2011 and owns 81.5 % of the company with the wendy s company owning the other 18.5 % . in addition to its classic roast beef and beef n cheddar sandwiches 4 arby s products also include deli style market fresh line of sandwiches curly fries and jamocha shakes . 4 its headquarters are in sandy springs georgia . 5 as of december 31 2015 there were 3 342 restaurants . there are international locations in three countries outside of the united states canada turkey and qatar . 6 contents 1 history 2 products 3 global locations 4 legal issues 5 see also 6 references 7 external links history edit an arby s franchise with vintage sign in midland michigan . very few locations still carry this sign . arby s former location inside kilcawley center on the campus of youngstown state university in youngstown ohio arby s home market . this location closed in july 2012 when construction began to convert the space into a wendy s. 7 arby s was founded in boardman ohio in july 23 1964 by forrest 1922 2008 citation needed and leroy raffel 1927 citation needed owners of a restaurant equipment business who believed there was a market opportunity for a fast food franchise based on a food other than hamburgers . the brothers wanted to call their restaurants big tex but that name was already used by an akron business . instead they chose the name arby s based on r. b. the initials of raffel brothers . 8 9 the raffel brothers opened the first new restaurant in boardman ohio just outside youngstown on july 23 1964 . they initially served only roast beef sandwiches potato chips and soft drinks . hoping to attract a more upscale clientele arby s interior design was purposely more luxurious in appearance than the typical fast food sandwich stand of the day . arby s offered their roast beef sandwiches for .69 at a time when hamburger stands were charging .15 for a hamburger . 10 a year later the first arby s licensee opened a restaurant in akron ohio . the famous arby s hat was designed by the original sign makers peskin sign co. 11 expansion to other states began in 1968 beginning in pittsburgh 12 the closest large out of state market to youngstown and detroit . during the 1970s the expansion of arby s took place at a rate of 50 stores per year . during this time it created several menu items including the beef n cheddar jamocha shakes chicken sandwiches curly fries and two signature sauces arby s sauce and horsey sauce . 13 baked potatoes were added to the menu in 1968 . 14 curly fries were initially introduced as curly q fries in 1988 . 15 it became the first restaurant in the fast food industry to offer a complete lite menu in 1991 with several sandwiches and salads under 300 calories and 94 percent fat free . 10 16 the family owned business tried to converting into a public company in 1970 by the offering the sale of stock 17 but the ipo never went through when the stock market subsequently fell . 18 in 1976 the family sold the company to royal crown cola company for 18 million 19 and leroy raffel remained as ceo until his retirement three years later . 18 in 1984 victor posner obtained arby s via a hostile takeover of its then parent royal crown 20 through his dwg corporation . 21 nine years later with a new owner of dwg corporation and a new name triarc companies inc. 22 a former pepsico executive don pierce was brought in to resurrect arby s. 23 with 100 million additional funding pierce moved to a new roast town concept similar in format to boston market in 1996 . 24 the roast town concept received poor marks in market tests and was quickly discontinued . pierce and his team left the company and it sold all of its 354 company owned locations to rtm restaurant group an existing arby s franchise for 71 million . 25 another marketing concept that was tried was a dual brand venture that was started in 1995 with zuzu s handmade mexican grill . 26 the marketing venture was a failure resulting in lawsuits being filed by each company against the other . 27 in 1992 les franchises p.r.a.g. inc. opened the first arby s franchise in the canadian province of quebec . 28 it was also the 100th location to open in canada and joins other locations that were then operating in the provinces of ontario alberta new brunswick nova scotia manitoba british columbia and saskatchewan . the quebec location also sold the uniquely french canadian dish called poutine . in 2002 arby s returned to operating restaurants by purchasing the second largest arby s franchisee sybra inc. with 293 locations out of bankruptcy outbidding rtm so as to prevent rtm from becoming too large . 29 rtm was purchased by arby s on july 25 2005 . 30 31 in 2008 triarc purchased wendy s and changed its name to wendy s arby s group to reflect their core businesses . 32 33 in january 2011 it was announced that wendy s arby s group were looking into selling the arby s side of the business to focus on the wendy s brand . 34 it was officially announced the companies would split on january 21 2011 . 35 in 2009 the wendy s arby s group signed a franchise deal with the al jammaz group of saudi arabia to open dual branded wendy s arby s through the middle east 36 with the first location opening in dubai in the united arab emirates in may 2010 . 37 the wendy s arby s group also signed a similar franchise deal in june 2010 with tab gida sanayi ve ticaret to open dual branded restaurants in turkey . 38 there were two different attempted to operate franchises in the united kingdom . gsr restaurant group opened their first arby s franchise location in london in 1992 followed by a second location the following year in glasgow . 39 these were also the first locations to open in europe but both were forced to close by 1994 . in 2001 barown restaurants open two arby s franchise locations in southampton hampshire and sutton surrey but both were forced to closed after operating for a few months . 40 on june 13 2011 wendy s arby s group inc. announced that it would sell the majority of its arby s chain to roark capital group while maintaining an 18.5 % stake in the company . 10 41 at the time of the sale arby s was experiencing an operating loss for the year of 35 million with 350 arby s franchisees were more than 60 days late in royalty payments and 74 low performing franchised units and 96 company owned units were forced to closed . 42 despite its cash flow problem arby s also reported that it had six months of sales growth at established stores in the united states which it had attributed to its new turnaround plan that it had recently launched . 43 the new owners turned the company around by closing more underperforming locations changing the company s marketing strategy and by introducing new products on a regular basis . after four years arby s was able to issue a 300 million in dividends which result in wendy s receiving 54.9 million for its minority stake with the remainder paid to roark . 44 products edit arby s medium roast beef sandwich with curly fries beef n cheddar sandwich in addition to roast beef deli style sandwiches called market fresh sandwiches are sold at arby s. the original lineup of sandwiches included roast beef and swiss roast turkey and swiss roast ham and swiss and roast chicken caesar . with the exception of the chicken caesar all market fresh sandwiches came with the standard toppings of spicy brown honey mustard mayonnaise red onion rings green leaf lettuce tomato slices and sliced swiss cheese . additions to the market fresh lineup included roast turkey ranch and bacon and the ultimate blt . market fresh five star club served on harvest white bread was introduced in 2003 for a limited time . 45 the ultimate blt was released for a limited time in 2002 46 and later in 2012 . 47 in 2003 the line was again expanded to include other styles of specialty sandwiches that were served on baguettes that included the italian beef n provolone 48 french dip n swiss philly beef supreme 49 and pot roast 50 51 sandwiches . corned beef and turkey reuben sandwiches were added to the menu in 2005 . 52 in early 2006 arby s restaurant group signed a contract with pepsi making pepsi the chain s exclusive soft drink provider . when franchisees contracts expire with coca cola they will be required to switch to pepsi cola 53 the only exception was the arby s located at youngstown state university because the university has its own separate contract with coca cola for other university purposes particularly the athletic department . this arby s closed in mid 2012 when construction began to convert the location into a wendy s. 7 toasted subs sandwiches served on a toasted ciabatta roll were first introduced in september 2007 . the initial line up included the french dip & swiss toasted sub philly beef toasted sub classic italian toasted sub and turkey bacon club . 54 three months later the toasted subs product line was extended to include the meatball toasted sub and the chicken parmesan toasted sub . 55 in october 2013 arby s introduced a smokehouse brisket sandwich . 56 in september 2014 arby s introduced gyros to its menu for a limited time . 57 gyros were previously offered in 2006 . 58 they have since become a permanent menu fixture on the menu in april 2016 . 59 steak fajita flatbreads were offered for a limited time in 2015 . 60 after a nine year hiatus a pork beef mixture meatball sandwich was reintroduced in july 2016 . 61 in august 2015 arby s introduced a series of five small sandwiches called sliders starting at 1.29 with prices varied by location . 62 63 these new menu items lead to an increase in sales at many locations . 64 this is not the first time arby s tried to market miniature sandwiches . two years earlier arby s tried to sell a similar product called the mighty minis that were sold in pairs . 65 during the first month of national sales the firm was able to sell 1 million or a ton of sliders . 64 to encourage additional sales outside of normal lunch and dinner meal hours began