---
title: "Nation's Restaurant News: Carl’s Jr. breaks up with Hardee’s"
url: https://burnaze.com/article/01b58102-a3a1-4b8c-a8a9-e543d877d9c7
source: "1851 Franchise"
original_url: https://1851franchise.com/nations-restaurant-news-carls-jr-breaks-up-with-hardees-2705610
category: "Restaurants"
industry: "Restaurants"
published: 2018-02-19T14:09:01.000Z
modified: 2026-11-01T04:10:09.257Z
image: https://newimage.1851franchise.com/cdn-cgi/image/quality=85,format=webp,width=1280,height=720/story/featureImage/2676668dea9491ea109d2f87939115a77182.jpg
---

# Nation's Restaurant News: Carl’s Jr. breaks up with Hardee’s

**TL;DR:** CKE Restaurants Holdings Inc. is separating Carl's Jr. and Hardee's as distinct brands to maintain customer perception and integrity. The two franchises will focus on building on their existing images, with Carl's Jr. emphasizing its bold status and Hardee's expressing its authenticity and southern roots.

*originally published in 1851 Franchise on 2018-02-19. [Read the original](https://1851franchise.com/nations-restaurant-news-carls-jr-breaks-up-with-hardees-2705610).*

## Story

CKE Restaurants Holdings Inc., owner of both Carl's Jr. And Hardee's will be making a conscious effort to separate the two brands. According to a recent article in Nation's Restaurant News, this turning point comes after nearly 20 years of attempting to merge the two.

One reason for doing this is maintaining the integrity of the customer perception of each brand. CEO Jason Maker said that the parent company sees "them as two regionally iconic brands. We think they have distinct customers, I often talk to people [and say] these brands grew up very differently. And they stand for very different things.”

The two franchises will focus on building on the key points of their existing images. For Carl's Jr., that will mean emphasizing its status as a bold brand while saying goodbye to advertising elements that may have alienated a female audience in the past. Hardee's will focus on expressing its authenticity and southern roots.

## Entities

- 1851 Franchise (publication)
- Restaurants (sector)
- Carl's Jr. (company)
- Hardee's (company)
- CKE Restaurants (company)
- customer perception (topic)
- brand separation (topic)
- regional branding (topic)

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Originally reported by 1851 Franchise (https://1851franchise.com/nations-restaurant-news-carls-jr-breaks-up-with-hardees-2705610). Summarized by Burnaze (https://burnaze.com/article/01b58102-a3a1-4b8c-a8a9-e543d877d9c7).