Jim:      Mr. Puzder, welcome to Mad Money...

Andy:    Good to meet you.

Jim:     Alright, you seem to have brought the whole kit and kaboodle with you.

Andy:    Well, I thought you out to try the burger, and no restaurants in New York or New Jersey so we brought the restaurant to you.

Jim:     I think that is fair. When are you going to open up some actual ones right here?

Andy:    As soon as we get a franchisee. It is really historic that we do not have restaurants here, we did not have them when I took over. Love to have a restaurant in New York.

Jim:     But that is the beginning of what I have been saying, which is that you could literally double your number of outlets couldn’t you?

Andy:    Absolutely, we have real growth plans coming up in the next couple of years, even in this economy. Over 300 franchise stores, about 70 company operated stores, that is just a mess. There is another 300 plus internationally. So we are really looking to increase stores across the country.

Jim:     Okay, Andy, one of the things that… I recommended the stock in candidly… we made money.. but candidly I thought that the same store sales would be good… so in some ways, it is better to be lucky than good… now, were those numbers directly because of something that you said on your last conference call… I used to joke that people were giving away free food, now it is not a joke?

Andy:    Well, part of that is true and we really could do that. We could lower the quality of the food and sell it for .99 cents. But we are rated, well we are generally rated the best on taste and the best on quality of ingredients. I am not going to give that up to generate some short term sales. We have got a great reputation with these burgers. When the economy recovers, I want people to remember where you can get a really great burger, not where you can get a really terrible burger.

Jim:     Now, we have… one other time that I talked about your stock, you do have kind of a sexy ad campaign… and I think that is an okay term, I do not think that I am being period by saying that… does it work?

Andy:    It works great. Our target is young hungry guys, 17 to 34 year old males, that is an inspirational target.

Jim:     Alright, so it does work when you run it… because advertising, one of the things that Burger King, which is really doing badly… has said is that they are going to take advantage of lower rates to be able to really boost advertising… is that another arms race that you have got to get involved in?

Andy:    Well, our ads, we spend a lot less than Burger King or McDonald’s on advertising because you do it by a percentage of sales. If you have more units, you have more advertising. So our ads you remember. You know you see an ad with Paris Hilton, you are going to remember that ad. These other ads, you see an ad with the King, or your loving it, their loving it. So we have got to do ads that really stick with you because we do not run them as much. And so we are not going to get into the we are going to spend more on advertising battle. We just do more tactful ads.

Jim:     Now, how about the fact that you are bringing the eight burger, what is that?

Andy:    Well, there is an eighth of a pound burger, we used to have it at Carl’s. And we discontinued it a couple of years ago, and we decided to bring it back to offer it in like kids meals. So that patty will be available if we wanted to use it. But it is generally a kids meal, or a, we do have .99 cents products, by the way, we just do not promote them.

Jim:     Okay, before we get to the tasting.. one of the things that I am always hung up about, is I have been recommending McDonald’s since the show has began… one of the reasons, is for the last couple of years now it has been going up… today it hit $60, two years ago it was $53... that is a nice run… your stock was at $20 two years ago, it has been hammered… how do you get that thing moving again?

Andy:    Well we got hammered when commodity costs shot up, because we own about 30% of our restaurants. And so it is not all franchise income. McDonald’s has a much higher percentage of franchise restaurants, so their revenue stream was a lot less vulnerable. When the commodity prices hit, I think that people were surprised, they took advantage of the stock when commodities went down, and still the stock went way up. But still then they were surprised when they came down. And then after it went down, we solved the problem, we took care of price, we took care of products, and then the economy collapsed. So we kind of got caught in a spot where we probably should not have justifiably been, but it was pretty easy to understand why we were there.

Jim:     But you also have to understand from my point of view, it is hard to understand why I good price point place would be hurt so badly by a weaker economy?

Andy:    Well, you get hurt really in California. If you look at Hardee’s for first quarter, they were positive 2.5%. And this is the same business plan. So at Carl’s what we are getting hit with is 11 plus unemployment, I heard between a million and 4 million illegal immigrants left, where do they eat? So in California we are getting hit, a lot of people are leaving the state because the taxes are so high. But I think these failed initiatives, these initiatives that failed you know where they want to raise taxes and give a refund, I think that has to send a message even to the most business negative legislators in California that we are in a crisis and we need to do something to help support business so that they can support these programs. So, I do think that you are right about a recovery in California and that would be huge for us.

Jim:     Alright, I talked about this thick burger. Do you have one?

Andy:    Do you guys got a thick burger, Debbie?

Jim:     Hey, is the service that fast. If it is, we are just closing down and moving right there.

Andy:    Well, it is a little slower than that. We make them all to order.

(they eat burgers)

Jim:     I may have been out of line… alright, give me how much this costs and what it is compared to from Wendy’s? Which I know that you are not that crazy about… give me the comparison.

Andy:    This burger that I have sells for around $4, and it is a half pound, and there is really nothing comparable at any of our competitors. Wendy’s is on air now with three burgers for .99 cents, and they have double burgers, and single burgers. What you have the thick burger sells for around $2.89 or $2.99, depending upon the store, whether it is a franchise or the company. It is black angus beef, nobody else has black angus beef. It is whole leaf lettuce, it is not shredded lettuce. You know it is a real quality statement. You have got a thicker bun. I mean, we do everything we can to make sure that these burgers are top of the line.

Jim:     I have got to tell you, I may have been flip… I think I was flip in judging the taste, because this is a darn good burger… and it has been a darn good stock for us, and I am sticking with it. Andy Puzder thank you for bringing everybody, and thank you ladies and gentlemen.