Sonic Drive-In
300 Johnny Bench Dr, Oklahoma City, OK 73104-2471
Ownership Hierarchy
Approximately 95-100% of the Sonic Drive-In restaurant locations are linked in the Atlas Research Platform.
Enterprise Snapshot
(US & CAN)
Public profile metrics.
Cuisines
1 of 1 shownStates & Provinces
3 of 47 shownSummary
Sonic’s history began in 1953, when Troy Smith started a stand serving hamburgers and root beer. In 1956, Smith and Charlie Pappe established a second restaurant. The business originally operated under the Top Hat name, but another company held the trademark, leading to the adoption of Sonic in 1959. Sonic Drive-In sits beneath Inspire Brands, its immediate parent company, and Roark Capital Group, its ultimate parent. Sonic is a quick-serve burger concept headquartered at 300 Johnny Bench Drive in Oklahoma City. The company has locations in 47 states, and more than 90% of the system is franchised. Its meal periods are breakfast, lunch and dinner. A typical Sonic location has about 50 seats and occupies approximately 1,500 square feet. Site types, seating and restaurant footprints can vary by market and location.
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The public profile introduces the enterprise. Subscribers can explore the connected records behind it.
Ownership & Concepts
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Contacts & Leadership
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Locations & Markets
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How This Profile Is Built
RestaurantData combines corporate disclosures, franchise documentation, public filings, company websites, location research, and proprietary verification. Parent-level figures may aggregate linked concepts. Certain sales and location totals are presented as estimates when companies do not publish a single current figure.
About This Enterprise Profile
Research Notes
2025 FDDs in process. Units will be updated periodically as available.
The Restaurant Enterprise Index is RestaurantData’s research framework for organizing major restaurant enterprises, including franchisors, franchisees, multi-concept operators, and parent organizations.
Certain sales and location totals are presented as estimates when companies do not publish single current figures.
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The Restaurant Enterprise Index focuses primarily on companies with a substantial role in restaurant operations. Investment firms, financial sponsors, and other ownership partners are generally not included unless they also play a meaningful operating role; an otherwise qualifying entity may also be omitted when sufficient reliable information is unavailable.
The ownership hierarchy follows the entity structure from the bottom up, showing the profiled entity in relation to its parent organizations, including its ultimate parent. When the entity owns or operates concepts beneath it, up to three are displayed.
Verify Our Data Methodology
- Foundation: Active state business registries form the primary backbone of every record.
- Sources: Publicly available filings throughout, including public Franchise Disclosure Documents (FDDs).
- Integrity: Zero proprietary third-party databases utilized.
- Verification: Entity/concept records are validated at the source by our in-house research team.
Leveraging Human-Verified Connections
- Collection: Filings and public records are gathered through intake procedures.
- Verification: In-house researchers review every record before it enters the database.
- Ownership Chain: Where relationships can be established, researchers work upward from a concept headquarters or single concept through parent, grandparent, and ultimate parent, resolving operators into one connected structure.
Maintaining the Longitudinal Record
- Duration: Continuous tracking since 1997. Twenty-nine years of unit-level history.
- Method: Same methodology applied across the full period so year-over-year comparisons hold.
- Change Tracking: Openings, closures, ownership transfers, and operator consolidation are recorded as they occur, not backfilled.
- Result: Expansion and contraction trends visible over decades, not snapshots.
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