food service founder al cabrera headquarters downers grove illinois u.s area served midwestern united states canada key people christopher j. ondrula president and chief executive officer joel aaseby chief financial officer pam smith vice president of operations john schank vice president of operations website www.heartlandfoodcorp.com footnotes references 1 heartland foods is one of the largest franchises of burger king . the downers grove illinois based company owns and operates over 225 restaurants in six us states . 2 history edit by 2001 and nearly eighteen years of stagnant growth many of burger king s franchises were in some sort of financial distress . the lack of growth severely impacted bkc s largest franchise the nearly 400 store ameriking ; by 2001 the company which until this point had been struggling under a nearly 300 million debt load and been shedding store across the us was forced to enter chapter 11 bankruptcy . 3 while several individual bk franchisees also took advantage of the ameriking failure and the resulting sale of its assets miami based franchisee al cabrera purchased the largest chunk of stores 130 locations primarily in chicago and the upper mid west from the failed company for a bargain basement price of 16 million or approximately 88 % of their original value . taking these stores he and his partners created a new company called core value partners to renovate and update the locations which had deteriorated during ameriking s decline . during this time the company was renamed heartland foods and it purchased 120 additional stores from other financially distressed owners and completely revamped them as well . the resulting purchases made mr. cabrerra burger king s largest minority franchisee and heartland one of bkc s top franchisee groups . 4 by 2006 the company was valued at over 150 million and was sold to new york based gso capital partners . 5 references edit executive profiles . heartland food corp. retrieved 2008 10 17 . about heartland food corp. . heartland foods corp. 2005 . retrieved 2008 09 14 . jo napolitano 2002 12 22 . a fighter for burgers and fries . the new york times . retrieved 2008 04 06 . the ameriking bankruptcy has added uncertainty to the prospects for burger king which relies heavily on franchise owners of its restaurants . bk franchisee led group buys 131 ameriking units . nations restaurant news . 2003 12 15 . retrieved 2008 04 12 . major burger king franchisee to sell 240 restaurants . the miami herald . 2006 12 17 . retrieved 2008 04 12 . v t e burger king history advertising advertising programs franchises countries with franchises legal issues products product list people james b. adamson brad blum greg brenneman norman e. brinker jeff campbell john w. chidsey jack cowin david edgerton james mclamore donald n. smith products beef sliders premium burgers bk xxl big king whopper chicken grilled chicken sandwiches specialty sandwiches bk chicken fries bk chicken nuggets tendercrisp other bk dinner baskets breakfast sandwiches fish sandwiches mac n cheetos storm ice cream advertising campaigns big bumpin bk tee vee burger king kingdom pocketbike racer sneak king the burger king the subservient chicken the whopperettes the whoppers ugoff where s herb sponsorships bk racing burger king classic alex bowman nascar joe nemechek nascar new zealand breakers nbl ryan truex nascar sauber f1 related subjects burger wars fast food advertising franchises and related topics amrest army and air force exchange service beurger king muslim bk whopper bar burger king israel burger king mattoon illinois carrols corporation simonds farsons cisk heartland food corporation hungry jack s australia tim hortons olayan group wimpy ownership pillsbury company grand metropolitan diageo tpg capital bain capital 3g capital berkshire hathaway restaurant brands international legal issues and cases burger king corporation v hungry jack s pty ltd burger king v. rudzewicz burger king pok mon container recall 2013 meat adulteration scandal retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title heartland food corporation & oldid 738004228 categories companies based in dupage county illinoiscatering and food service companies of the united statesdowners grove illinois navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 6 september 2016 at 10 19 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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