TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — After more than 60 years in the business, the owners of Florida’s largest McDonald’s franchise plan to sell their locations to the fast-food giant, the company said in a press release.
The Tampa-based Caspers Company has been linked to McDonald’s restaurants throughout Florida since 1958, when Fritz Casper opened the state’s first McDonald’s on South Dale Mabry Highway. Casper opened the restaurant after meeting Ray Kroc, founder of McDonald’s, at a department store in Chicago, the release stated.
The group now has 60 McDonald’s restaurants in Tampa and Jacksonville with over 3,600 employees.
“Three generations of Caspers have shined the arches, serving millions of Happy Meals along the way,” the company said in a press release.
The company is now controlled by siblings Blake Casper and Allison Casper Adams, who also own Oxford Exchange and The Stovall House in Tampa, and the Library, the restaurant on the Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital campus in St. Petersburg.
“Caspers has contributed to countless charitable organizations supporting the communities with which it has operated. Blake Casper, Allison Casper Adams, and husband Robby Adams wish to thank the thousands of loyal team members who have made Caspers McDonald’s so successful over the generations. They have been the smiling faces making the difference in millions of Floridians’ lives. We wish the McDonald’s system much success in the future,” the release said.