CEO keeping Carl's Jr. menu 'indulgent, decadent'

By Tiffany Hsu  Los Angeles Times

Fast-food chain Carl's Jr. is known for its bosomy brand ambassadors, debaucherous burgers and a clientele that leans toward young, hungry dudes.

But the wizard behind the curtain isn't a frat boy with a salad allergy. It's Andy Puzder, a 62-year-old jogger and devoted grandfather of six who has never met "celebutante" Paris Hilton.

Remember her? Nearly a decade ago, she shimmied into a slinky bathing suit, lathered herself up with soap suds and downed a burger atop a car in an infamous Carl's Jr. television ad.

Puzder has spent the past 12 years approving similar marketing efforts as the chief executive of CKE Inc. The company is based in Carpinteria, Calif., and owns Carl's Jr. and its sister chain Hardee's.

He has also presided over a rescinded attempt at an initial public stock offering, preserved the company's indulgent menu, fretted over looming Obamacare regulations and attempted to keep innovating at a company with 72-year-old roots.

Puzder arrived for a late lunch recently at a busy Carl's Jr. near Los Angeles International Airport, leaving his silver Mercedes-Benz sedan in a parking lot scented with french fries. Perched on a stool at a window table, he skimmed through e-mails from his son's high school.

He shows off smartphone photos of his second wife, a health nut who looks to be about 35 (she's actually 51). When 20-year-old Danish model Nina Agdal, scantily clad and gorgeous, shot her recent Carl's Jr. ad campaign in Hawaii, Puzder stayed away.

"I'm happily married and would like to stay that way," he joked.

Like his wife, Puzder keeps his waistline trim. But his personal wellness goals haven't threatened Carl's Jr.'s and Hardee's reputations as sauce-soaked temples of caloric excess.

Outside of online menus listing good-for-you options, the brands "don't really advertise the healthy food products," Puzder said.

The company sells 20 times more Western Bacon Cheeseburgers, with 740 calories apiece, than it does BBQ chicken sandwiches, which each have 390 calories.

His personal favorite: the Memphis BBQ burger. But for lunch, he ordered the chain's latest debut, the Charbroiled Atlantic Cod Fish Sandwich.

He expects imitations of the sandwich, made without frying and using a more expensive fish than the Alaskan pollock favored by competitors, to hit the market soon.

"We get copied a lot, but that's OK," he said.

Puzder grew up in Chagrin Falls, an Ohio farm town where sawdust blanketed the floor of the grocery store and cows nibbled grass outside classroom windows. He has never worked behind the counter at a restaurant.

He came into the CKE fold through Carl's Jr. founder Carl Karcher, a business visionary with a complicated public legacy riddled with strong stances on divisive issues. Puzder became Karcher's personal attorney in 1990 and moved to California soon after to help unravel Karcher's financial troubles.

Now Puzder is running the business, one with locations in 42 states and 27 foreign countries. CKE's revenue last year was $1.3 billion. Including franchisees, the gauge reached $3.8 billion.

In August, CKE pulled its IPO at the last minute after investors balked at its expected price range of $14 to $16 a share.

These days, Puzder says, CKE is "not looking to do an IPO," although going public is still an option down the line.

"We didn't need to do it," he said. "The general market conditions were beyond our control, and when they turned, there was no reason to go out."

Economic factors, including higher payroll taxes, lofty gasoline prices and general pessimism, are tempering customer spending. President Obama's health care reforms will be "a big problem for American businesses" when they go into effect in 2014, Puzder said.

Four in 10 workers at Carl's Jr. and Hardee's are on part-time schedules. Paying to cover the rest won't be cheap, he said.