Clock was a

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

hamburger restaurant A fast-food restaurant, also known as a quick-service restaurant (QSR) within the industry, is a specific type of restaurant that serves fast-food cuisine and has minimal table service. The food served in fast-food restaurants is typically ...

chain founded by an offshoot from the US-based Carrols. The chain suffered from mismanagement and declared bankruptcy; as the government had acquired the forfeited company, it was incorporated into the state-owned restaurant chain SARA. As Carrols, Clock used the

McDonald's McDonald's Corporation is an American Multinational corporation, multinational fast food chain store, chain, founded in 1940 as a restaurant operated by Richard and Maurice McDonald, in San Bernardino, California, United States. They rechri ...

concept with names for

hamburger A hamburger, or simply burger, is a food consisting of fillings—usually a patty of ground meat, typically Ground beef, beef—placed inside a sliced bun or bread roll. Hamburgers are often served with cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion, pickles ...

s such as 'Big Clock' ('

Big Mac The Big Mac is a hamburger sold by the international fast food restaurant chain McDonald's. It was introduced in the Greater Pittsburgh Region, Greater Pittsburgh area in 1967 and across the United States in 1968. It is one of the company's fl ...

'). Using a huge

clock A clock or a timepiece is a device used to measure and indicate time. The clock is one of the oldest human inventions, meeting the need to measure intervals of time shorter than the natural units such as the day, the lunar month and the ...

as its logo, the chain grew to be very successful and widespread during the 1970s and 1980s, even branching out to

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

, but got into economic problems in the 1990s and started closing or selling restaurants. In 1996 Clock actually sold six restaurants (four in Stockholm and two in Gothenburg) to McDonald's. The same year, as part of what turned out to be a new business strategy, the company bought the hotel and restaurant company Provobis, which had the same main owner, Rolf Lundström, who thereby consolidated his holdings. It also attempted to reduce its own ownership in restaurants and increase the number of

franchise Franchise may refer to: Business and law * Franchising, a business method that involves licensing of trademarks and methods of doing business to franchisees * Franchise, a privilege to operate a type of business such as a cable television p ...

restaurants, but by 1998 only 14 Clock restaurants remained, of which six were sold the same year and the remaining eight at the beginning of 1999. The company took the name Provobis, and was in 2000 bought by the large

Scandic Hotels Scandic Hotels is a hotel chain headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden, with its main operations in the Nordic countries. Alongside hotels in Sweden, Norway, Finland and Denmark, the company also has a presence in Germany and Poland. As of 31 Decem ...

corporation. McDonald's continued to expand in Sweden during this period (as did other American chains such as

Burger King Burger King (BK) is an American-based multinational chain store, chain of hamburger fast food restaurants. Headquartered in Miami-Dade County, Florida, the company was founded in 1953 as Insta-Burger King, a Jacksonville, Florida–based res ...

and

Pizza Hut Pizza Hut is an American multinational restaurant chain and international franchise founded in 1958 in Wichita, Kansas by Dan and Frank Carney. They serve their signature pan pizza and other dishes including pasta, breadsticks and dessert at d ...

), but in an interview in 1996 the CEO of Clock explained the problems of his company with the increasing competition from other types of fast food such as

kebab Kebab (, ; ar, كباب, link=no, Latn, ar, kabāb, ; tr, kebap, link=no, ) or kabob (North American) is a type of cooked meat dish that originates from cuisines of the Middle East. Many variants of the category are popular around the wor ...

and

sandwich A sandwich is a food typically consisting of vegetables, sliced cheese or meat, placed on or between slices of bread, or more generally any dish wherein bread serves as a container or wrapper for another food type. The sandwich began as a po ...

es. Clock and the Clock logo is as of 2007 a registered trade mark of Swedish company F&S.

References

*Cecilia Frisk & Peter Claesson, "Hamburgare får ny förpackning: McDonald's tar över del av Clock-kedjan", ''

Göteborgs-Posten ''Göteborgs-Posten'' (lit. "The Gothenburg Post"), abbreviated GP, is a major Swedish language daily newspaper published in Gothenburg, Sweden. History and profile ''Göteborgs-Posten'' was first published in 1813, but ceased publication in 1 ...

'' 27 Aug. 1996. *Marianne Björklund, "Delar av Clock till McDonald's", ''

Svenska Dagbladet ''Svenska Dagbladet'' (, "The Swedish Daily News"), abbreviated SvD, is a daily newspaper published in Stockholm, Sweden. History and profile The first issue of ''Svenska Dagbladet'' appeared on 18 December 1884. During the beginning of the ...

'' 27 Aug. 1996. *Nils Odén, "Hamburgerkedjan Clock kan avvecklas. Oklar framtid efter köp av hotellkedja. Satsning eller nedläggning kan bli resultat", ''Svenska Dagbladet'' 9 Oct. 1996 (article from the news agency

Tidningarnas Telegrambyrå TT News Agency (Swedish: TT Nyhetsbyrån or simply TT; formerly ''Tidningarnas Telegrambyrå'' until 2013) is a Swedish news agency, the largest in Scandinavia, owned jointly by the country's newspapers and the media groups behind them. TT's servi ...

). *"Clocks restauranger sålda?" (unsigned), ''Göteborgs-Posten'' 26 Feb. 1999. *Kenny Genborg, "Scandic tar över hotellkedjan Provobis", ''Göteborgs-Posten'' 13 April 2000. {{Authority control Restaurants in Sweden Defunct fast-food chains Regional restaurant chains

See also

References