Whataburger

Early years

In 1950, Harmon Dobson and Paul Burton were looking to open a hamburger restaurant. Dobson's goal was to "make a better burger that took two hands to hold and tasted so good that when you took a bite you would say 'What a burger!'" In June 1950, Dobson was granted the Whataburger trademark. In August of that year they opened their first location on Ayers Street in Corpus Christi, Texas, across from Del Mar College. The store sold burgers for 25 cents, and also sold drinks and chips.

In 1951, Burton and Dobson ended their partnership after arguments concerning Dobson's price raise of the burger from 25 to 30 cents. Burton settled with owning the Whataburger franchises in San Antonio, Texas. Months later, prices for burgers were raised to 35 cents. In 1952, Dobson opened a location in Kingsville, Texas, the first store outside of Corpus Christi. In 1953, Joe Andrews, Sr. became the first non-founder franchise owner with a location in Alice, Texas. In 1959, the first Whataburger restaurant outside Texas opened in Pensacola, Florida.

1960s and 70s

By 1960, there were stores operating across Texas, Florida, and Tennessee. Inspired by his love for flying, Dobson designed the orange and white striped A-frame store in Odessa, Texas, in 1961.

In 1962, the company added French fries and hot pies to its menu. In 1963, it expanded to Arizona and totaled 26 stores. In 1965, it estimated selling 15,000 burgers daily in the Texas Coastal Bend area. In 1967, the company commissioned the "Flying W" company logo, and the company had expanded to 40 restaurants in four states.

On April 11, 1967, Dobson and an associate died in an airplane crash and Dobson's widow Grace took control of the business. In 1969, Grace became chairman of the board.

In 1971, the company opened its first drive-through store, and in 1972, it opened its 100th store. In 1974, the A-frame design was changed to a "Modern A-Frame" to accommodate drive-thrus and larger dining rooms.

1980s and 90s

In 1980, the company opened its 300th store. In 1982, three Corpus Christi stores began 24/7 service. In 1983, the company added Breakfast on a Bun, the Whatachick'n sandwich and breakfast taquitos to its menu. In 1987, it opened its 400th store, and also shut down operations in California.

In 1993, Harmon and Grace Dobson's son, Tom, became the CEO and President. The menu expanded, offering Whatameal packages, cookies and biscuits, and chicken strips. The company celebrated its 500th store opening in 1995, and was noted as the country's eighth-largest hamburger chain.

On May 6, 1999, the company opened "Whataburger by the Bay" on Shoreline Drive in Corpus Christi. It is the largest Whataburger store at 6,000 square feet (560 m²). The site includes a life-size bronze statue of Harmon Dobson.

2000–present

On August 8, 2000, Whataburger celebrated its 50th anniversary with 575 operating stores. In 2001, during the 77th Texas Legislature Session, a bill was passed proclaiming Whataburger to be a Texas Treasure. In 2003, it hired Austin-based advertising firm McGarrah Jessee, which created an advertising campaign featuring the gravelly voice of Ohio actor William Bassett. In 2007, the company achieved 700 stores in ten states with annual revenue of $1 billion.

In October 2011, the company changed its television ads from Bassett's voiceovers to "documentary-style ads employees and customers using their own words to describe what makes Whataburger special." By the end of the year, it had 728 stores operating in ten states. The Dobson family owns 611 stores, and the other "117 are owned and operated by about 25 franchisers."

On August 8, 2015, Whataburger celebrated its 65th anniversary by offering free upgrades on Whatameals.

Headquarters and offices

The company is headquartered in 300 Concord Plaza Drive, a 140,000-square-foot (13,000 m²) building in San Antonio. The company has field offices in San Antonio and in Irving in Dallas-Fort Worth.

Previously the corporate headquarters were in Corpus Christi and the chain had regional offices in Corpus Christi, Houston, Irving, and Phoenix, Arizona.

After Hurricane Ike hit the Texas Coast in 2008, the company began considering moving its headquarters from Corpus Christi. On Friday November 21, 2008, the company announced it was permanently moving the headquarters to San Antonio, and that the current Corpus Christi office would remain open indefinitely to help ease the transition. The company chose to permanently relocate to San Antonio because of a larger talent pool for potential employees, increased protection from hurricanes, and office space that is considered to be cost-efficient. San Antonio, as of March 2009, had a Whataburger division headquarters and almost 60 Whataburger restaurants.

By March 2009 the company purchased the Concord Plaza development from HDG Mansur. According to Whataburger officials, the company chose Concord Plaza due to proximity to neighborhoods and schools attractive to employees and proximity to San Antonio International Airport. Tesoro, which leased space in the development, was moving to another facility at the time Whataburger bought the building. The company planned to move 250 jobs in the corporate sector to San Antonio, with over 60% of the employees coming from Corpus Christi and the remainder hired locally. As of March 2009 the company had not announced a date of closure for the Corpus Christi office. At that time, the Corpus Christi/Coastal Bend area had almost 1,200 Whataburger employees in all sectors and almost 40 Whataburger restaurants.

What-A-Burger and similar stores

Whataburger is sometimes confused with the What-A-Burger (note hyphens) chain of family-operated restaurants in Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina. The first What-A-Burger store opened in 1950 by entrepreneur Jack Branch near Newport News, Virginia at Newport News Circle (intersection of Jefferson Avenue and U.S. Route 258) in the former Warwick County. Branch's first location predated the first Texas Whataburger restaurant slightly; the move took place after a modernization project involving the traffic circle. What-A-Burger and Whataburger were unaware of each other's existence several states apart until around 1970, when there was some correspondence. However, no legal actions took place until 2002–2003, when the two companies sued each other over the alleged trademark infringement. The Court of Appeals, in 2004, eventually decided the Texas Whataburger had a legitimate trademark; but the Virginia chain did not harm the much larger Texas-based chain in any way, nor did they cause any reasonable public confusion. The court said "There is no evidence — nor can we imagine any — that consumers are currently likely to be confused about whether the burgers served by Virginia W-A-B come from Texas or Virginia."

A second restaurant chain based in North Carolina, named What-A-Burger Drive-In, owned by Eb and Michael Bost, was not a party to the lawsuit, but under case law procedures, would also retain their name. It visibly numbered their stores starting from #1 in Kannapolis, North Carolina to #15 in Concord, North Carolina, of which six remain in operation as of March 2009.