Harold's Hamburgers was originally set up by a consortium of 5 people in 1975, a few months before the first MacDonald's opened in Geneva.
The instigator of the project was a Swede named Jan Ehnbom. Jan couldn't give his own name to the bar, as he already had set up Jan's Sports (now Mountain Air). His Swiss wife was called Marie-France, and that didn't sound right either for a burger joint. So the place was named after his young son, Harold.
Jan and Marie-France pulled out almost immediately, and in the following year one of the team and manager of the place, Gunnar Millqvist, bought out the rest except for the lawyer, as there had to be an administrator for the company according to Swiss law.
In the Spring of 1978, the present owner, Alan Woolman, got involved with Gunnar Millqvist in the skateboard business, importing and distributing equipment to sports shops. Unfortunately, the bottom fell out of the market a year later, and a couple of other unlucky mishaps put the company on the verge of bankruptcy. The solution was to sell the bar to Alan Woolman by a debt exchange with the backing of the suppliers.
In the meantime, the couple that had been managing the bar had not only brought the turnover right down, but also had run off with the takings. Thus it was virtually back to starting all over again.
The first thing that Alan Woolman did was to decide to make his own burgers after an extensive unsatisfactory search for a good pre-made patty. At the same time, the basic size was hiked from 100 gr. to the present 120 gr. (quarter pound). Other more minor changes were made over time such as making the Harold's Sauce, originally intended for the HaroldBurger only, universally available due to client demand. New burgers were added, including the BlueBurger with the home mix of bluecheese, the BaconBurger, the DoubleBurger. Other burgers such as the HawaianBurger were dropped due to lack of demand.
By the mid-eighties, the place was so popular and busy that it became increasingly difficult to operate in the confined space in the same block as Baillod Electricité just below the Post Office. But it wasn't until 1991 that the opportunity arose to move to the present location in the Central Square. Building began in August 1991 and the new Harold's opened in December of that year. See our Flash presentation of the construction.
After a difficult first year of transition, turnover increased 50% in 1993, just falling short of budget. Switzerland then went through a period of economic crisis coupled with a very high franc. Tourism suffered generally and business stagnated until 1998 when the general situation improved.
In December 1998, following a suggestion by the director of the Tourist Office who knew that Alan Woolman was computer nerd who built web sites on the side, an Internet access with one machine was installed . Demand was far higher than expected, and a corner was re-equipped the following January to put in a second machine. This was still insufficient, and in December 1999 a third machine was installed, followed by two more in January 2000. At the same time, due to the number of requests for logging on with laptops, an ISDN line was put in. 2001 saw the installation of the WiFi network for laptops. Future expansion will be with laptops to avoid eating in to further seating space with fixed machines.
2001 also saw the installation of a satellite dish to appease the frustration of our British clients who don't wish to miss their football! This service was further improved in January 2003 with the installation of a large screen to make for more pleasurable viewing.
2004 saw major changes in the management structure with the setting up of Harold's SàRL. Although Alan Woolman remains at the helm as the General Manager, Graeme Black and Emma Repo (-Wilke), both old-time staff members, now have a small slice of the business.
