Issue 17,Winter/Spring 2002
In this Issue:

"Meals on Wheels"
New Store Opening
Best in Brief
Box Score
Wendy's Time Line

Wendy's Dad

Managers on the Move
401(k) Match Announced

Observations

Mike Dell'Angelo
Chief Operating Officer

O n January 8, Dave Thomas, the founder of Wendy’s Old Fashioned Hamburgers, died of liver cancer at his home in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. That day, America lost what the Washington Post called its "hamburger helper." But for those of us in the restaurant industry, we lost not only a businessman we admired, but also someone we felt we could call our friend. You didn’t have to know Dave long to feel that way.
I started my career as a Wendy’s employee and later became a Wendy’s franchisee. As I watched and listened to Dave over the years, he taught me several important lessons. One of them was to always do the right thing. Most of us have jobs that require us to do things right, but some of us have jobs that require us to do the right thing. For example, Briad employees have raised tens of thousands of dollars for the National Adoption Center, a cause for which Dave Thomas was a national spokesman. We don’t expect publicity for supporting this organization for foster children. We simply want to do the right thing. That’s something Dave taught us.

Another simple Dave lesson was "You’ve got to be nice to people. If you take care of your customers, your customers come back and take care of you." In other words, if customers are served good food with friendliness and attention to detail, they’ll always come back. If customers observe you treating each other with respect and dignity, they’ll always come back.

For Dave, simple lessons like these paid off. Less than a decade after opening his first Wendy’s restaurant on November 15, 1969, there were 1,000 Wendy’s. Today there are more than 6,000. What’s more, a recent survey found that 90 percent of Americans knew Dave as Wendy’s founder and that 70 percent recognized him by name. In the end, perhaps the biggest ingredient to Dave’s success – in addition to his honesty, integrity and hard work – was the way he allowed each of us to see in him a little of ourselves. In Dave, we saw values and the work ethic. But more than anything else, we saw that our dreams can, in fact, come true.
 

In the aftermath of September 11, the Wendy’s store in Long Island City, NY became part of the volunteer effort supporting rescue, recovery, and clean-up efforts. The store, located across the East River from Manhattan, contributed 300 to 400 Combo Meals each week to support the hard-working teams of the NYPD, NYFD and National Guard as they went about their difficult jobs.

At Ground Zero, appreciative members of the National Guard and a "Meals on Wheels" volunteer with special meals brought in from Wendy’s in Long Island City, NY.