Wendy's began as the dream of Dave Thomas, Founder, Senior Chairman and "Wendy´s dad". Dave wanted to build a better, made-to-order hamburger with fresh toppings. In 1969, he opened his first Wendy´s restaurant in downtown Columbus, Ohio, and named it after one of his daughters.

From there, the company grew rapidly, through restaurant development and franchising. Today Wendy´s operates over 1,000 Company restaurants and has over 500 franchisees operating more than 4,000 restaurants.

Our customers are passionate about Wendy´s. That´s why Wendy´s employees--from the restaurant teams to the corporate staff--still embrace the simple, effective principles Dave Thomas followed when he opened his first Wendy´s restaurant: Serve hot, fresh hamburgers that are made to order with a choice of toppings and treat each customer as a special guest.

That commitment has made Wendy´s the third-largest quick service hamburger chain in the world serving the best hamburgers in the business in the United States, Canada, and various countries and territories.

In 1995, Wendy´s merged with Tim Horton´s, the largest coffee and fresh baked goods restaurant chain in Canada. Together, the restaurant chains now boast over 7,000 locations and combined sales of more than $7 billion.