River Cities Business Journal: Business Profile

River Cities Business Journal

KINGMAN - Dropping out of college is not usually a good thing, but Krystal (Peterson) Burge and her brother Mark Peterson did just that in 1982 and now the pair own and operate 56 Taco Bell restaurants.

“We came to Kingman in 1983, 25 years ago, to open a Taco Bell at the Kmart shopping center,” Burge said.

Both were attending Arizona State University at the time.

“Our father was a lawyer and our mother was his secretary. Some his clients were Taco Bell franshisees and we saw how well they were doing,” Burge said. “We were going to ASU and Taco Bell had an opportunity in Kingman no other franchisee wanted.”

By 1985 the pair had Taco Bells in Lake Havasu City and Bullhead City and added a Prescott location in ‘87.

Ten years later in 1997 the company had expanded to include locations in Wickenburg, Parker, Chino Valley, Prescott Valley, Blythe and Needles.

The biggest change came in 1998 when they bought 26 restaurants in the Phoenix area.

Now the Kingman-based Desert de Oro Foods, Inc., stretches from Winslow to Blythe and Phoenix to Kingman. It employs 3,200 people and has about 350 employees in Mohave County.

“We're a $57 million company,” Burge said. “When you look at sales that's a lot of tacos sold.

“We're also in the casual dining business. We operate six full-service restaurants (including the Dambar in Kingman).”

Despite the company's success Burge never considered moving the headquarters out of Kingman.

“This community helped me in the beginning and I hope to give back,” Burge said. “The Kingman community has blessed me. I have a wonderful family and we were able to raise them in a small-town lifestyle. It's been a blessing.

“I was raised in Mesa, but I'm from (Holdrege) Nebraska. My father and his brother were farmers and the farm wasn't big enough to support two families. I met my husband, Everett Burge, and he was from Hastings, Neb., and he has a daughter named Krystal. We have three other children, Amber, 21; Tiffany, 18 and Chad, 14.”

Their corporate philosophy has played a big role in its success.

“You have to be able to establish good people to work underneath you. You have to have a vision and know what your goals are and you need to build a team that knows what the goals are,” Burge said. “We're in our Taco Bells almost every day, but we're not micro-managers.

“Our major focus is we want our employees to be successful. You have to realize who is actually running the business.”

Burge also contributes a lot of personal time to her community. She serves on the boards of Kingman Regional Medical Center, the airport, Mission Bank and the Kingman Tourism Committee.