Hardee's

Wilbur Hardee opened a walk-up burger stand in Greenville, North Carolina, on September 9, 1960, and charged 15 cents for a charbroiled burger. The biscuits were made from scratch every morning. That combination of flame-grilled beef and fresh-baked bread became the template for a chain that spread across the South and Midwest through franchising, went public, and changed hands several times before landing with CKE Restaurants in April 1997 for $327 million. The deal with Montreal-based Imasco Limited created a combined system of 3,828 restaurants: 3,152 Hardee's across 40 states and 10 foreign countries, plus 676 Carl's Jr. units mostly in California.

Today Hardee's runs roughly 1,700-plus locations, concentrated in the Southeast, Midwest, and Mid-Atlantic, as a sister brand to Carl's Jr. under CKE Restaurants Holdings in Franklin, Tennessee. Roark Capital's investor group took CKE private in 2013 in a deal valued around $1.7 billion. The two burger chains share menu DNA, including the lineage from Hardee's Thickburger to Carl's Jr.'s Six Dollar Burger, but since June 2018 they have operated as separate brands with separate marketing. Then-CEO Jason Marker said CKE's racy advertising did not fit Hardee's family-oriented image.

The menu leans on charbroiled Thickburgers, fried chicken sandwiches, and a breakfast daypart built around biscuits, breakfast burritos, Loaded Hash Rounds, and coffee. Hardee's does not report standalone revenue; CKE is private, and systemwide sales are typically reported combined with Carl's Jr. in the roughly $3 billion to $4 billion range. The footprint has shrunk from its peak, with closures in weaker markets offset by new and redesigned units, including a rebuilt restaurant in Enfield, North Carolina, that opened October 27, 2026, and a location inside a new Love's Travel Stop. [edit]