The Hans im Glück Franchise GmbH is a German franchising company. The system catering for burgers includes 87 restaurants. The burger chain is based in Munich. In January 2020 the founder Thomas Hirschberger sold his 90 percent of the company shares.
Hirschberger, who had already started the cocktail chain Sausalitos, opened the first "Hans im Glück Burgergrill & Bar" in 2010. On December 31, 2014, the company and its franchisees together had around 1200 employees and net sales of around EUR 43.6 million. According to Systemgastronomie in Deutschland 2015, the yearbook of the FA Systemgastronomie in DEHOGA, Hans im Glück had the third largest growth rate of all system catering establishments in 2014 with an increase in sales of 29.5 million euros and 6.4% growth after LSG and BackWerk In 2014, Hans im Glück was ranked 66th in the ranking of the franchisees in system catering with the highest turnover (2013: 132nd), and in 2014 in the ranking of full-service system catering, the company was in 7th place. In the 2019 financial year, the group's net sales were 140 million euros.
In 2016 there was a break with the franchisee Paniceus, who operated twelve locations in Lower Saxony, Schleswig-Holstein, Hamburg, Bremen, Berlin and Potsdam. The number of branches decreased to 31 in April 2016, which meant that Hans im Glück was no longer represented, especially in northern Germany, until new branches were opened. After years of legal dispute about the termination of the Paniceus franchise contract by Hans im Glück and the decor of the Paniceus restaurants, which the former franchisee renamed "Peter Pane", the parties reached an out-of-court settlement at the end of 2018.
In July 2018, Thomas Hirschberger sold ten percent of his shares to GAB Beteiligungsgesellschaft at a price of 9.9 million euros. The family company of the Bühler family deals with investments in the private equity and real estate sectors as well as with strategic corporate development. In January 2020 Thomas Hirschberger parted with his remaining 90 percent of the shares. GAB remained involved when new shareholders came and a. the BackWerk founders Dirk Schneider and Hans-Christian Limmer.
Shortly before the sale, the Handelsblatt reported on turbulence in the company, while a spokesman for Hirschberger emphasized that 2019 was the most successful year in the company's history. In the opinion of the economist Stephan Stubner, problems from the early days of the company continued to have an effect due to fundamental errors, for example in the franchise agreements. The company “did not manage to get the immense growth under control even with an adapted administration”, resulting in a lack of transparency, process problems and high costs.
At the time of the sale, the chain had 81 branches, of which the company operated 26 itself, 55 operated franchisees, including Hirschberger. The four branches in Singapore were excluded from the sale and remained with Hirschberger.
In 2019, the company offered fried “insect burgers”, around a third of which consisted of “buffalo worms” (Alphitobius diaperinus, grain mold beetle), as well as egg and soy. The burgers were on sale in 49 branches for several weeks.
Hans im Glück is represented in German cities as well as in Kufstein (Austria), Singapore and Switzerland. The chain's 14 restaurants by far are located in Munich. At the end of 2017, the chain opened its 50th restaurant on Orchard Road in Singapore. The second location was opened in May 2018, the third location in August 2018 and the fourth location in Singapore in February 2019. The first Hans im Glück store opened in Switzerland at the beginning of April 2018; in 2020 there were four locations.
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It is a local german franchise group, so it`s regional mainly in southern Germany around Munich.