Whataburger to move headquarters to San Antonio

CORPUS CHRISTI — The Whataburger hamburger chain is moving its corporate headquarters form Corpus Christi to San Antonio.

According to a company statement, the move will be made gradually as early as next year. Meanwhile, the Corpus Christi home office will continue to function during the transition. The move will affect 250 headquarters workers.

"San Antonio offers us cost-efficient office space for our expanding headquarters staff, ease of travel to the 10 states where we currently do business, a skilled technology work force to build our systems for the future and protects us from the impact of hurricanes," said Preston Atkinson, Whataburger's president and chief operating officer.

The move comes 58 years after the family owned company started with Harmon Dobson's single stand in Corpus Christi in 1950. The company now has more than 700 restaurants in 10 states with 21,000 employees and 2007 revenue topping $1 billion.

"This was a very difficult and emotional decision for us," said Tom Dobson, the founder's son and the company's chairman and chief executive. "Corpus Christi, the Dobson family and Whataburger have grown together over the last 58 years, and we're immensely grateful for the city of Corpus Christi and the community here that has helped us become who we are today."

Corpus Christi City Council member Mike Hummell told the Corpus Christi Caller-Times for a story in Thursday's editions that he does not think the city could have done anything to keep the Whataburger headquarters from leaving.

"They outgrew Corpus Christi. In my view, that's the end of it," he said.