Nathans Famous Hot Dogsâ„¢

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It began as a nickel hot dog stand in Coney Island in 1916 and grew to become the much-loved New York institution now available throughout the United States and overseas. Nathan's Famous recently entered a dynamic new stage, evolving from a company that owned and operated restaurants to a company that owns and markets brands.
For the majority of its 85 years, Nathan's focused on the sale of its products through fast-food restaurants. Recently, however, the company has implemented an aggressive strategy to expand the reach of its brand by diversifying product offerings and adopting an expanding points-of-distribution program.
Nathan's has reached out to its customers, offering its signature products through programs that are more profitable and less capital intensive. For example, today consumers are often delighted to find small Nathan's outlets situated within Home Depot improvement centers. International master franchise agreements have recently placed Nathan's in Israel and Egypt. Domestically, we've added club stores and even Canteen vending machines to our constantly expanding distribution.
At the same time, Nathan's Branded-Product Program has grown to over 1,400 points of sale. This highly-popular program enables independent foodservice operators to sell Nathan's products with no up-front franchise fees or ongoing royalties at venues such as airports, B&I accounts, hotels, sports arenas, convention centers, colleges, and convenience stores.
Nathan's is now poised to implement the same strategy for Kenny Rogers Roasters, a recently acquired brand. The opportunities are enormous for the combined family of brands, which as of September, 2001 consisted of 24 company-owned units , 380 franchised or licensed units and more than 1,400 branded- product points of distribution in 41 states, the District of Columbia and 17 foreign countries. Nathan's also owns the exclusive rights to co-brand Arthur Treacher's Fish & Chips.