CKE Restaurants Inc., of Anaheim, Calif., says it plans to open between eight and 12 Carls Jr. fast-food restaurants in the Spokane-Coeur dAlene area during the next two years.


Suzi Brown, CKEs director of public relations, says the company currently is negotiating leases for several properties here, but declines to disclose the sites until negotiations have been completed. She expects that the first three to four outlets will open here by this summer. All of the outlets would be company owned, rather than franchised.


Carls Jr. outlets, which are located mostly in Southern California, sell charbroiled hamburgers, charbroiled and crispy chicken sandwiches, and charbroiled sirloin steak sandwiches. The restaurants also offer stuffed baked potatoes, salads, and a variety of side dishes that include french fries, onion rings, and deep-fried zucchini, Brown says.


CKE, a publicly traded company that also operates Hardees and Taco Bueno outlets, has decided to enter the Spokane market as part of a strategy to expand throughout the Western U.S. Brown says the company increased the number of its Carls Jr. outlets by 13 percent last yearby entering states such as Colorado and Utahand expects its rate of growth to exceed that this year.


The Spokane outlets would be the first Carls Jr. restaurants to open in Eastern Washington. The company currently operates two Carls Jr. outlets in Vancouver, Wash.


In addition to entering the Spokane market, CKE also plans to enter the Boise area within the next year, Brown says. She adds that CKE doesnt like to enter a new market with only one or two outlets. Instead we prefer to go into an area with enough outlets to get the most for our marketing dollars, she says.


A typical Carls Jr. restaurant occupies between 2,500 and 4,000 square feet of floor space, and employs about 25 people. Brown says that when the company enters a new area, it usually builds its own restaurants rather than occupying existing buildings. Most Carls Jr. outlets have drive-up windows and some have playground areas, she says.


There are a total of about 800 Carls Jr. outlets in California, Oregon, Colorado, Utah, and Oklahoma. About two-thirds of the outlets are company owned, and the rest are operated by franchisees, Brown says.