Asmussen | Danville-based Burger King franchisee has enjoyed a whopper of a career

Jun. 13—Stop by a Burger King in Bloomington, Campaign-Urbana, Danville or Peoria, and you might bump into Richard Andrzejczyk. If you see the vice president of operations for Danville-based Group 2029 during lunchtime, there's a good chance he will be having the restaurant's signature item: the Whopper.

"The Whopper is always going to be my favorite sandwich," Andrzejczyk said. "I add mustard to mine."

How many has he had during 40-plus years at Burger King?

"They say there are 214,000 ways to eat a Whopper," Andrzejczyk said. "I may have tried all 214,000 ways."

If needed, he can cook his own.

"I'm probably one of the few owner-operators that can still make a Whopper and have no issue putting a headset on," he said.

Andrzejczyk is living his own Burger King dream, which he talked about at a recent Danville Rotary luncheon.

The 50-something Andrzejczyk started working for the company at age 14. His dad, Joe, was the general manager at a location in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

"He said, 'It's time to go out there and earn a little bit of money. Let me get you a job,'" he said. "He knew the Burger King manager up the street. He talked to the manager and got me my job."

On his first day, Richard was stationed by a broiler with orders to feed meat and buns into the machine.

His instructions: Don't run out in the middle of lunch.

Nine and a half hours later, "I was sweating like a pig, and the guy says 'You can go home now.'"

When Richard got home, his dad asked about his first day. Richard shared his broiler experience.

"He said, 'Oh, did they teach you how to make sure the buns were toasted? Did they teach you they had enough of this product?'"

His dad went to the other manager the next day with some pointed suggestions.

"He said 'I know your boss, I know your boss's boss. I trained your boss's boss. We all know how you're supposed to train somebody. I'm dropping my son off. When he comes home today, I want him to have a better experience,'" Richard said.

Thanks Dad.

"Next thing I know, I got to sit in a nice air-conditioned office, watch videos, learn this and that," Richard said. "Day Number Two was 100 percent better than Day Number One, which is why I'm really devoted to training."

It was the early 1980s. Richard remembers being paid $3.15 an hour. Big bucks to a teenager.

A balanced home life came first for his father.

"He wanted to go to work, do his job, go home to his family," Richard said. "He never wanted to be more than a general manager because he didn't want to deal with anything outside his four walls. He was a general manager for 45, 50 years."

Joe is still going strong at 83, running a gas station in South Carolina.

The great work ethic was obviously passed from father to son.

Almost four decades later, Richard remains with BK. Though there have been a few detours.

"I've had three jobs my entire life," he said. "Burger King, Little Caesars and Steak 'n Shake."

When he worked for Little Caesars, he had a second job with Burger King.

In his 30s, he moved to Indianapolis to work for Little Caesars. When those stores closed, he worked for the Burger King corporation in Indianapolis for five years.

Perfect pairing

In 2005, Danville's Maruti Seth, who owns Burger King franchises in Illinois, turned to Andrzejczyk with a proposal.

"He said 'I need somebody to run my business, be my partner,'" Andrzejczyk said.

Owning a business had been on Andrzejczyk's to-do list.

"I sure as hell couldn't afford to do it on my own," he said. "He gave me that opportunity."

They started with three restaurants — in Danville, Tilton and Tuscola. They soon opened a second location in Danville. Then they built Burger Kings in Rantoul, Urbana and Savoy and bought out an existing franchisee in Champaign, which gave them nine stores.

Andrzejczyk took a brief break from the business to work for Steak 'n Shake in the training department, helping to open stores in the U.S., Dubai, Kuwait and Paris.

Training has always been a passion for Andrzejczyk.

"I believe nobody goes to work to fail," he said. "Too often, people hire people and they don't want to teach them things because they're afraid they are going to take their job. I've never been that way."

In the meantime, Seth had grown the Burger King holdings to 24.

"He knew I really didn't want to work for anybody anymore and he said 'Why don't you come back home and do what you enjoy doing?'" Andrzejczyk said.

That was five years ago. Andrzejczyk is happy he made the move.

There have been some challenging moments, none harder than the early months of COVID-19.

"It was a whole new operating environment for us," Andrzejczyk said.

The company had 515 employees at the start of the pandemic. Sales soon dropped.

Andrzejczyk and Seth agreed to keep the staff intact and not cut anyone's wages.

"We made it through," he said. "Things are not 100 percent back to normal. But it's not keeping me up at night anymore."

The franchisee now has 22 stores.

What is the goal?

"Our original plan when we were first down and talked was to be at 50," Andrzejczyk said. "We're almost halfway there. If we have the opportunity to acquire some or build some more, I think we'd do it.

"We're definitely looking at the future."

Life is good, Andrzejczyk said, thanks in large part to the employees.

"I have absolutely the best team you could ever ask for," he said.

A priority for Andrzejczyk and Seth is making sure the employees can live comfortably.

"I was an employee," Andrzejczyk said. "I'm very lucky in the fact that Maruti allows me to do a lot of things like that other franchisees don't allow their operators to do, He's really good about that."

Flame-broiled or bust

Time for a confession: I am a BK-aholic. I've been to many of Andrzejczyk's stores over the years, ordering more bacon double cheeseburgers than I should admit. Always plain. That's having it my way.

Not knowing Andrzejczyk owned all the local franchises, it's cool to link a face to the place.

And there are many longtime employees working for Andrzejczyk. There is Paul Mager, who runs the store on Champaign's Springfield Avenue. He was the first employee in Rantoul, hired 17 years ago.

"I got to watch him become a man, get married, have kids of his own," Andrzejczyk said. "I think his oldest kid is about four years away from working for us."

The general manager at the Savoy Burger King, Sol Fields, has been with the company 18 years. He started as a nighttime closing employee. Now, he is in charge of his own store.

"Last year, Maruti and I had the privilege of helping him buy his first house," Andrzejczyk said.

There are more BK connections at home for Andrzejczyk. His wife, Karina, is the daughter of a longtime Burger King franchise owner, Ed Luzietti.

"He wanted me to come run his business. I turned him down," Andrzejczyk said. "But we became really good friends."

Every Sunday, Andrzejczyk was invited over for dinner. He was divorced and Karina was unmarried.

Eventually, Karina's mom nudged Andrzejczyk toward asking her out.

Richard and Karina have been married 13 years. He has three children from a previous marriage.

Richard and Karina split their time between homes in Danville and Brownsburg, Ind.