Max Hamburgers
 | |
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Restaurants |
| Founded | 1968 in Gällivare, Sweden |
| Headquarters | Luleå, Sweden |
Key people | Richard Bergfors, Chairman/CEO; Curt Bergfors, Founder |
| Products | Burgers and other fast food |
| Revenue |  4.1 billion SEK (2021) |
Number of employees | 7400 (2022) |
| Website | www |
Max Burgers Aktiebolag ("Max Burgers Incorporated"), earlier Max Hamburgerrestauranger AB, is a Swedish fast food corporation.
History
The chain was founded by Curt Bergfors (27 February 1949 - 8 May 2022[1]) and Britta Fredriksson in Gällivare, Sweden, in 1968. Bergfors' oldest son Richard Bergfors is the current president since 2002.
Until the 1980s, Max was the largest hamburger restaurant chain in northern Sweden, with only a single restaurant outside of Norrland (on Drottninggatan, Stockholm). This changed during the 1990s, when they expanded to become a nationwide fast-food chain. By 2011, there were around 85 restaurants in Sweden, compared to just 40 five years earlier.
From 2005 to 2010, Max expanded extensively to the western parts of Sweden, and in 2010, plans were announced to expand to Riyadh, Egypt and Dubai with Kuwait following.[2] Three years later Landmark Group was operating three Max restaurants in Dubai, where the menu was modified to exclude bacon.[3] The chain also operates restaurants in Poland.
The first restaurant in Norway opened on May 11, 2011[4] followed by the first in Denmark on March 1, 2013, and in Poland September 1, 2017.[4]
As of December 17 2024, there are 155 restaurants in Sweden[5], 26 restaurants in Poland[6], 8 in Norway[7] and 6 in Denmark[8].
The name Max came from the nickname of Curt Bergfors, which was taken from Swedish actor Max von Sydow.[9]
Reception
Max was the first hamburger restaurant in Sweden to outcompete McDonald's restaurants, which happened in 1991 in Umeå and Luleå, where McDonald's (who arrived later in northern Sweden than in Sweden's major cities) in fact closed their restaurants before returning a few years later. In 2007, the popularity of Max forced the McDonald's in Skellefteå, Piteå and, again, in Luleå out of business.[10]
See also
References
- ^ "Max grundare Curt Bergfors är död – sista tiden i Miami". www.expressen.se (in Swedish). Retrieved 22 May 2022.
- ^ Bengtson, Eva-Maria (19 September 2007). "DN: Maxad expansion för Maxburgare". Dagens Nyheter. Archived from the original on 12 October 2007.
- ^ Lindberg, Olof (30 March 2013). "Max etablerar sig i Dubai (Max setting up in Dubai - interview)". Dagens Nyheter. Archived from the original on 3 September 2017.
- ^ a b "Företaget | MAX". MAX Hamburgers. Archived from the original on 7 October 2011.
- ^ "Hitta MAX". Retrieved 17 December 2024.
- ^ "Znajdź MAX". Retrieved 17 December 2024.
- ^ "Finn MAX". Retrieved 17 December 2024.
- ^ "Find MAX". Retrieved 17 December 2024.
- ^ "Ett år efter pappa Curt Bergfors död: "Det kom som en chock"". kuriren.nu.
- ^ "Max winner of the great hamburger war - McDonald's fleeing from northern Sweden". Aftonbladet (in Swedish). 23 November 2007. Archived from the original on 17 August 2019. Retrieved 13 February 2023.