Hardee’s Owner CKE Plans to Improve Menu

CKE Restaurants Inc., which added Hardee’s to its fast-food holdings last year, plans to restore sales at the fourth-largest U.S. hamburger chain with better food and innovative marketing, a CKE executive said Wednesday.

In a move similar to McDonald’s Corp.’s, CKE will improve the ingredients and freshness of its sandwiches and run commercials that promote Hardee’s as a “hometown” brand, said Robert Wisely, CKE executive vice president of marketing.

CKE, which acquired the struggling chain from Imasco Ltd. in July, expects to cut costs and stem the decline in Hardee’s same-store sales by building the unit’s lunch and dinner business, and by making its kitchens more efficient. Each of the 3,038 Hardee’s restaurants generates 40% to 60% of its sales at breakfast.

So far, the Anaheim-based company has cut $21 million in overhead costs at Hardee’s, Wisely said at an annual Piper Jaffray Inc. investors conference in Minneapolis.

In addition, each Hardee’s store will save about $10,000 a year as CKE purchases paper goods, condiments and other supplies in bulk for its 3,981 restaurants, which include the Carl’s Jr. hamburger chain and Taco Bueno Mexican food.

Hardee’s same-store sales fell 7.2% in the fiscal year ended Jan. 31. Same-store sales rose 6.2% for Taco Bueno and 4.8% for Carl’s Jr. in the same period.

CKE also operates 26 Rally’s hamburger outlets and 100 JB’s restaurants.