Burger King Cuts Non-Restaurant Payroll by 550

Burger King Corp. will lay off a third of some 1,500 non-restaurant employees as part of a restructuring that follows its acquisition earlier this year by a British food and liquor conglomerate, the company said Monday.

“What we want is a management structure to help us compete in the 1990s in a very, very tough marketplace,” said Barry J. Gibbons, chief executive of Burger King.

The company also has hired a new marketing chief. Gary Langstaff, former executive vice president of marketing with rival Hardee’s, will take that post at Burger King, which has been criticized for ineffective marketing strategies.

Gibbons said Langstaff will help determine whether the advertising agency N. W. Ayer, which developed the “We Do It Like You’d Do It” slogan, remains the company’s main ad agency.

Focus on Marketing

Industry analysts say a lack of consistency in both corporate and restaurant operations has hurt the Miami-based chain.

“We could do with just sticking with something . . . like marketing,” Gibbons said, adding that he’s less worried about consistent quality of restaurants.

“I think we have some . . . good operations out there on the franchise side,” he said. “What we need to do is make sure we get everything to an excellent base.”

Burger King already was in trouble when Grand Metropolitan PLC bought the fast-food company’s parent, Pillsbury Co., for $5.75 billion in January following a bitter 2 1/2-month battle.

For several years, its average sales per store have been flat, and the nation’s second largest hamburger chain has been unable to make any progress toward narrowing the commanding lead held by McDonald’s Corp.

Pillsbury had attempted to spin off the chain in its defense against the hostile takeover. But the courts forbade the move.

Gibbons said the layoffs are “energizing the organization.”

“What we had here was an organization which had done its job in the ‘60s and ‘70s and ‘80s. It was too bureaucratic. There were too many signatures and too many layers for making the management decisions quickly,” he said.

Some 550 headquarters and field staff employees--including 100 in Miami--will get pink slips. Many of them were employed in the company’s 12 regional centers, which Gibbons says have been redesigned.

Burger King now will have 22 operating centers and a centralized area for management, marketing and systems operations, he said.

The company announced its headquarters will remain in Miami.

Those let go will receive severance packages, the company said. Counseling and job-finding help will be provided as well.

An industry analyst said the move is a step in the right direction.

“I think what the company really needs to do is place a lot of emphasis at the restaurant level,” said Steven Rockwell of the investment firm Alex Brown & Sons Inc. in Baltimore.

Burger King and its franchisees run more than 5,800 restaurants worldwide. The company said sales for 1988 were more than $5.4 billion.