Jack in the Box: The History of the Fast-Food Chain

The first Jack in the Box restaurant opened in San Diego, California, in 1951 by a businessman by the name of Robert O. Peterson. This small restaurant had a huge jack-in-the-box clown on top of the roof and was outfitted with a drive-thru window and an intercom system. They served hamburgers for only 18 cents to casual motorists.

Mr. Peterson also organized other restaurant conceptions in addition to a food manufacturing plant as sections of a parent company called San Diego Commissary Co. In 1960, San Diego Commissary amended its name to Foodmaker Company.

Jack in the Box stretched outside of California in 1960 with the launch of restaurants in Phoenix, Arizona. In 1963, Jack in the Box opened restaurants in the Dallas-Ft. Worth areas and Houston.

Ralston Purina Co. obtained controlling interest in Foodmaker in 1968 and managed the business as a wholly-owned company. Jack in the Box restaurants underwent a major growth in an effort to infiltrate the midwestern and eastern marketplace with Ralston Purina. The company expanded to more than 1,000 restaurants by 1979. Foodmaker made the decision to focus its assets and hard work in the southwestern and western marketplace, where it was believed the highest profit and expansion was. Therefore, the business closed or sold more than 200 Jack in the Box restaurants in the Midwestern and eastern marketplace.

Some Foodmaker affiliates and an investment company finished a leveraged buyout of the company from Ralston Purina in 1985. Foodmaker went public two years later and transformed the business to a privately owned company in 1988. Foodmaker again went public in 1992 with an offer of 17.2 million shares priced at $15 per share.

In 1995, Foodmaker started an advertising crusade that introduced Jack as the business's imaginary originator, CEO and main character for the advertising. People that had been customers for a long time recalled Jack as a clown who used to be on top of the company's family friendly drive-thru speaker box. In 1980, Jack was blown up in a TV commercial that was a sign in the direction of a newer mature customer. Jack and his commercials, with his giant, ball-shaped, ping-pong head, trustworthy commitment to serving the best fast food encounter to his visitors, were an immediate success. Within no time, his resemblance became visible on articles ranging from Pez dispensers to antenna toppers. Since 1995, over 27 million items bearing Jack's resemblance have been sold.

Over time, Foodmaker dissociated itself of all restaurant ideas except Jack in the Box and closed its food manufacturing plants. Recognizing the development and power of the Jack in the Box product, Foodmaker switched its name to Jack in the Box Inc. in 1999 and changed its New York Stock Exchange ticker symbol to JBX. Also in 1999, Jack in the Box extended into the southeastern United States opening new restaurants in Baton Rouge, Nashville and Charlotte. Greenville-Spartanburg, a fourth southeastern marketplace, was opened in 2001.

Jack in the Box initiated an innovative, co-branded idea that united a full size Jack in the Box restaurant with the company's proprietary product of convenience store named Quick Stuff in 2002.

In 2003, Jack in the Box penetrated the fast casual restaurant class with the purchase of Qdoba Restaurant Corporation, franchiser and operator of Qdoba Mexican Grill. This is with the long term objective of growing to be a national restaurant business. Qdoba is a promising leader in fast casual dining with over 400 restaurants in business in 39 states. Qdoba is known for presenting Mexican food that attracts mainly the adult style. The orders are made to order using combinations of fresh flavors and Mexican spices, together with grilled steak and chicken.

Source
http://www.jackinthebox.com/aboutourco/history.php