CARPINTERIA, CA - 13 December, 2004 -

Serving burgers for breakfast is nothing new for the California-based Carl's Jr. chain. But a burger created especially for breakfast is. Starting Dec. 15, Carl's Jr. becomes the first major fast food chain to introduce a burger topped with a fried egg, developed exclusively with its breakfast customers in mind. "Carl's Jr. has always been well known for its charbroiled burgers but, until recently, the brand wasn't all that well known for its breakfast menu," said Brad Haley, Carl's Jr. executive vice president of marketing. "At first, we assumed that was why hamburgers made up almost 40 percent of our total breakfast sales. But, the more we investigated the phenomenon, the more it became clear that Americans' tastes are changing at breakfast. More and more people are now eating traditional lunchtime favorites at breakfast. Even soft drink sales are starting to rival coffee as the most-consumed beverage in the morning." In a study of more than 2,000 consumers, Carl's Jr. learned that nearly half of Americans have eaten "non-traditional" breakfast foods for breakfast in the past month and 11 percent said that they are eating more "non-traditional" breakfast foods for breakfast than they were last year. The most frequently consumed "non-traditional" breakfast foods are: Pizza: 51 percent Sandwiches: 41 percent Chicken: 23 percent Other meats: 19 percent Mexican food: 19 percent Burgers: 17 percent "Our theory was that the lower consumption pattern for burgers was due to the lack of availability and awareness of burgers as a breakfast option or else the lack of a burger designed specifically for breakfast," Haley added. "Our test market bore this out and the resulting burger should be the answer people are looking for." The Breakfast Burger features a fresh, fried egg, crisp bacon, hash brown nuggets, cheese, ketchup and a charbroiled all-beef patty, all on a sesame-seed bun. Participating Carl's Jr. restaurants will offer The Breakfast Burger during morning hours, for a suggested retail price of $2.39. Carl's Jr. is a wholly owned subsidiary of CKE Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE: CKR) of Carpinteria, California. As of the end of the second quarter on Aug. 9, 2004, CKE Restaurants, Inc., through its subsidiaries, had a total of 3,206 franchised or company-owned restaurants in 44 states and in 13 countries, including 1,016 Carl's Jr. restaurants, 2,067 Hardee's(R) restaurants and 105 La Salsa Fresh Mexican Grill(R) restaurants. For more information, go to www.ckr.com or www.carlsjr.com

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