Arby's: The Raffel Brothers' 69-Cent Gamble, Bankruptcy and Elk Sandwiches

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Arby's stands for the initials of Forrest and Leroy Raffel, restaurant equipment suppliers who saw the burger market saturating and opened a roast beef restaurant in Boardman, Ohio, in July 1964. They wanted the name Big Tex, but an Akron businessman held it. With upscale interiors and a neon cowboy hat sign by the Peskin Sign Company, they charged 69 cents a sandwich when burgers cost 15 cents. By the 1970s they were opening 50 stores a year on borrowed money, and when the 1971 recession hit they filed for Chapter 11.

The family sold to RC Cola in 1976 for $18 million, and in 1984 corporate raider Victor Posner took control through DWG. Under Triarc, former Pepsi executive Don Pierce got $100 million and launched Roasttown, a Boston Market imitation that failed in testing. A 1995 pairing with ZuZu Handmade Mexican Grill ended in lawsuits, and all 13 Daddy-O's Express burger units closed. By 2011, under the Wendy's/Arby's Group, the chain lost $35 million. Roark Capital took a majority stake, cut weak stores, added brisket, gyros and sliders, and within four years paid out $300 million in dividends.

A 2016 venison sandwich test in 17 locations in deer hunting states sold out on day one and went national the next year.
Elk sandwiches sold in Colorado, Montana and Wyoming in 2017 used farm-raised elk from New Zealand because of game meat laws.
Ads voiced by Ving Rhames announced the new slogan: "We have the meats."
To mark a 2018 switch from Pepsi to Coca-Cola, Arby's printed an ad on a sesame seed with Georgia Tech and laid a five-acre poster in Monowi, Nebraska.
In November 2017 the parent bought Buffalo Wild Wings for $2.4 billion and became Inspire Brands.

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