Church's Texas Chicken

George W. Church opens the first store outside the Alamo in San Antonio. Church's is acquired by Al Copeland and merged with Popeyes restaurant chain. It was George W. (Bill) Church, Jr., who fostered the dream of one day spreading Church's Fried Chicken across the country. When he took over the management of the company in 1962, there were eight locations in San Antonio, and for the time being he was content to concentrate on that limited market. Three years later, Church and his older brother Richard made a key contribution when they developed a marinating formula that could be made virtually anywhere. As a result, Church would be able to spread beyond San Antonio and still maintain a level of quality control on their signature fried chicken. In was also in 1965 that J. David Bamberger joined forces with Church to launch a separate franchise operation. Bamberger grew up poor in Ohio during the Depression on a four-acre farm that lacked running water and electricity. He worked his way through college by selling Kirby vacuum cleaners on his 40-mile commute to school each day, and after graduating with a business administration degree he stayed on with Kirby. In 1951, he was assigned to work in Tyler, Texas, and later transferred to San Antonio. Bamberger was an exceptional salesman and an even more dynamic motivator of a sales force he managed. One of his salesmen was Bill Church. As an investor and executive, Bamberger played a key role in the expansion of Church's Fried Chicken, which became the first Texas-based fast-food chain to go national. His idea was to locate units in poor urban neighborhoods, areas that other chains like Kentucky Fried Chicken avoided. About breaking new ground in the hiring and education of employees, Bamberger told Texas Monthly in a 2000 profile, "I sold it to Bill that this was just a step above door-to-door vacuum cleaner sales. We're gonna take the people who are the first to be laid off in a construction job and take them inside, teach them how to clean their fingernails--no one wants to see their chicken handed to them by someone who had to change his car battery that morning--tie a necktie, how to use deodorant, and say, 'Thank you.'" In 1967, the first units opened in five other Texas cities, so that by the following year the company was generating sales of $2.7 million from 17 restaurants. The Church family sold its interest in 1968 to the franchise company started by Bamberger and Bill Church. A year later, to fuel the expansion of the chain, the business was incorporated in 1969 as Church's Fried Chicken and taken public. By the end of the year, Church's operated more than 100 restaurants located in seven states. Church's tried to catch up with the segment leader, Kentucky Fried Chicken. By the end of 1974, the chain had grown to 487 units located in 22 states, with total revenues in excess of $100 million. However, CEO Bill Church and Bamberger, his executive vice-president, were no longer in agreement on how to continue growing the business. In 1974, Bamberger quit, citing "philosophical differences," although he remained the company's largest shareholder, owning 1.2 million shares. Picking up the slack was Roger A. Harvin, a childhood friend of Bill Church, who was trained as a plant pathologist but went into the restaurant business in 1967 when he became assistant manager of three Texas Church's restaurants. He then worked his way up through the ranks, became president in 1975, and took on increasing responsibility as Bill Church became less involved in the business. In 1980, Church resigned as chairman of the corporation and Harvin replaced him. Church's enjoyed a strong run in the 1970s, emerging as the second-largest chain in the chicken segment. The company began to expand internationally in 1979, opening a restaurant in Japan. Also during that decade, Church's became involved in the burger segment, launching a chain called G.W. Jrs. By 1982, the company would operate 62 o