A&W Restaurants, Inc., America's Original Drive-In, Continues 90th Anniversary With Minnesota Expansion Plans During Icsc Vegas Show This Week

May 21, 2009 // Franchising.com // Las Vegas---A&W Restaurants, celebrating its 90th anniversary, continues to celebrate with opportunities for entrepreneurs by announcing their plans for 10 state-of-the-art drive-ins in Minneapolis. The plans were announced at the ReCon___Global Real Estate Convention sponsored by the International Council of Shopping Centers, today at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

Doug Heinrich, A&W director development strategy, laid out expansion plans at the Las Vegas Convention for the iconic A&W Restaurants.

"We are looking for a few good entrepreneurs who want to work with a brand that has a loyal following in Minneapolis," Heinrich said. "We want to meet the growing demand for our brand."

According to Heinrich, Patrick Nickleson, an A&W Franchisee, will be opening the state's first A&W 3-D Drive-In this Summer in Inver Grove Heights, MN, near the Twin Cities.

A&W Restaurants, which pioneered the drive-in concept with such All American Classics as its famous A&W Original Draft Root Beer, Papa Burger, Coney Dog and the one-of-a- kind Root Beer Float, is now rolling out new "Drive-In Concepts." This provides customers the ultimate drive-in experience named "Three-D Drive In: Drive-In, Drive-Through, and Dine-In."

"Literally thousands of Minnesota residents have an A&W story they can tell whether it was their first frosty mug of A&W Root Beer or their first experience at a drive-in," explained Heinrich. "Our new drive-ins along with drink new menu items such as our Blendrrrs with real candy pieces, Smoothees with real chunks of fruit , Slushees with real fruit juice and Limeades with real lime will help create new experiences for our loyal following in Minneapolis."

According to Tim Matis, A&W Restaurant director of marketing, the long-running popularity of A&W can be attributed to maintaining quality menu items

About A&W®

The A&W® brand was founded in 1919 in Lodi, CA, and A&W® All American Food® is famous for serving a signature frosty mug root beer float and 100% US beef hamburgers and Coney dogs. There are more than 675 A&W® All American Food® outlets in 15 countries and territories around the world, and more than 600 additional points of distribution at Yum! Brands multibrand restaurants. A&W Restaurants, Inc. is a subsidiary of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE: YUM), Louisville, Ky.

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