Foosackly's

Foosackly's
Company typePrivate
IndustryRestaurants
GenreFast food
Founded2000; 24 years ago (2000)
FounderWill Fusaiotti
Eric Brechtel
Headquarters
Mobile, Alabama
,
U.S.
Number of locations
15
Area served
Alabama, Florida
ProductsChicken fingers, french fries, Texas toast, salads, sandwiches
RevenueIncreaseUS$53.1 million (2021)
Number of employees
About 200 (2021)[1]
Websitefoosacklys.net

Foosackly's (stylized as foosackly's) is an American chain of chicken restaurants in coastal Alabama and Northwest Florida.[1]

Background

Foosackly's was co-founded by Will Fusaiotti and Eric Brechtel. The two attended Louisiana State University together. Fusaiotti moved to Mobile with his family in 1995 to help his father open a Smoothie King.[2] Fusaiotti and Brechtel had never fried a piece of chicken until the weekend before opening their first location on University Boulevard in Mobile in 2000.[3] The first location opened on April 28, 2000.[4]

The restaurant has grown into a mini-chain in Alabama with 14 current operating locations in Mobile, Daphne, Foley, Saraland, Semmes, Auburn, and two in Pensacola, Florida.[3] The chain opened its fourteenth location, in Tuscaloosa, in 2020, and has plans to open further locations in Baldwin County and in Pensacola.[5] Fusaiotti has also considered opening restaurants in downtown Mobile, Spanish Fort, and locations northward toward Montgomery and Birmingham,[3] describing his philosophy of "It's not how many you open, it's how many you keep open."[5]

All restaurants had to shut down their in-room dine-ins in mid-March 2020 to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. Customers could still make their orders via drive-thru, take-away or pick-up service. Dine-in service has since resumed.

Advertising

One of the company's advertising campaigns gained national and international attention in 2008 during the U.S. Air Force's KC-135 aerial refueling tanker dispute between Boeing and a Northrop Grumman/EADS partnership.[6][7] Boeing protested the contract being awarded to Northrop Grumman/EADS, who would have built the tankers in Mobile. After this protest, Foosackly's placed billboards around the area stating "We would like to offer Boeing a finger."[8] That advertising campaign saw bumper stickers featuring the slogan sold as far afield as California and France.[7] Almost four years later, following an announcement in July 2012 from Airbus (a subsidiary of EADS) that it planned to build its first North American aircraft assembly plant in Mobile, Foosackly's began using a new slogan that read "We'd like to offer Airbus a hand."[7]

Credit card breach of 2018

In mid-2018, the company reported that all of its locations had been hacked and credit card data from over 165,000+ customers had been compromised. The attack took place from March 2018 through August 2018.[9]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Craig, Tiffany (June 23, 2008). "A Finger For Boeing". WKRG News 5. Media General Communications Holdings, LLC. Archived from the original on September 5, 2008. Retrieved October 20, 2008.
  2. ^ Murtaugh, Dan (November 2, 2011). "Foosackly's taps into the Social Network". Press-Register. Advance Publications. Retrieved October 11, 2013.
  3. ^ a b c Dugan, Kelli (October 11, 2013). "Foosackly's opening first Baldwin County location in Foley, expected to hire 35". Press-Register. Advance Publications. Retrieved October 11, 2013.
  4. ^ Matthews, Michelle (2014-06-09). "Shiny new Foo: Foosackly's opens its largest restaurant yet on Dauphin Street". Press-Register. Advance Publications. Retrieved 2014-06-09.
  5. ^ a b Specker, Lawrence (January 28, 2020). "Mobile favorite Foosackly's coming to Tuscaloosa". AL.com. Retrieved January 28, 2020.
  6. ^ Philippe Coste (Jun 19, 2009). "En Alabama, Airbus bataille contre Boeing" [In Alabama, Airbus' battle against Boeing]. L'Express (in French). Retrieved July 24, 2012. Vestige de la guérilla de 2008, un autocollant réapparaît sur les pare-chocs, " We would like to offer Boeing a finger ". La traduction:"Nous voudrions offrir à Boeing un doigt [d'honneur ?]" - serait un peu leste si le slogan ne provenait de Foosackly's, un fast-food local célèbre pour ses chicken fingers, des morceaux de poulet grassouillets à la mode cajun.
  7. ^ a b c Wilkinson, Kaija (July 2, 2012). "Foosackly's chicken fingers fun in advertising: A 'hand' for Airbus, a 'finger' for Boeing". The Mississippi Press. gulflive.com. Archived from the original on May 24, 2011. Retrieved July 24, 2012.
  8. ^ Grunbaum, Rami (June 29, 2008). "Boeing gets a taste of Southern ribbing". The Seattle Times. seattletimes.com. Archived from the original on August 1, 2008. Retrieved October 20, 2008.
  9. ^ Specker, Lawrence (September 6, 2018). "Foosackly's reports payment-card data breach". AL.com. Retrieved March 13, 2022.