Whataburger — with its yellow-wrapped burgers, fries and Spicy Ketchup — is as familiar to Texans as H-E-B and as beloved as the Dallas Cowboys when they’re having a good season.

Now the San Antonio fast-food chain is looking to put its iconic orange-and-white stores on many more street corners, and it’s turned to Wall Street for help.

Whataburger confirmed Thursday it has hired investment banking firm Morgan Stanley to help the company determine how best to fuel its expansion.

That will mean considering several potential strategies: selling the company or part of it, re-franchising, finding large private investors or selling Whataburger shares through an initial public offering.

For now, company officials are vague about their next steps.

“Our company is growing and is always attractive to investors, and we’ve brought in Morgan Stanley to help us explore our options,” a spokesperson for Whataburger Corporate Communications said in an email. “We have always evaluated the opportunities that can accelerate growth and maintain the success of our brand, and we will continue to do so in the future.”

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The company has more than 820 locations, with more than 670 in Texas alone.

Whataburger’s other restaurants are located in the South and Southwest, including Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico and Oklahoma. Most are company-owned.

Whataburger has increased its slice of the market as other fast-food companies have struggled in an intensely competitive industry, an industry expert said.

Like other businesses, restaurants are grappling with a staffing crunch amid historically low unemployment rates, fewer workers looking for jobs and rising wages. Another hit: meat alternatives are becoming more popular.

The company ranked seventh among U.S. burger brands by 2017 sales, raking more than $2.2 billion, restaurant publication QSR reports.

That put it behind fast-food heavyweights such as McDonald’s and Burger King for sales. But it was ahead of Hardee’s, which generated more than $2.1 billion in 2017 sales, and nipping at the heels of Jack in the Box, which brought in more than $3.4 billion.

The company reported $2.4 billion in 2018 sales for an upcoming report by Nation’s Restaurant News. That marks a 6 percent uptick, the publication noted, and Whataburger added more restaurants.

Founded by Harmon Dobson in 1950, the company remains family-owned to this day.

When Dobson opened the first Whataburger restaurant in Corpus Christi, he made $191 in the first three days selling burgers, according to the company. Victory came on the fourth day: “Big day—$141.80—Christ—What a workhorse. 551 burgers,” Dobson wrote in his diary.

The company had swelled to more than 17 locations by the early 1960s and opened the first of its A-frame restaurants.

Dobson died in a plane crash in 1967, and his wife, Grace, stepped in. The company expanded, branching into more states and adding hundreds of restaurants.

Son Tom Dobson took over the business in 1993 and Grace Dobson died in 2005. Whataburger continued growing, and in 2009 it moved to San Antonio.

The company, with its corporate office at 300 Concord Plaza Drive, is run by siblings Tom, Lynne and Hugh Dobson. But its current CEO, Preston Atkinson, took over from Tom Dobson in 2012.

Atkinson started building and designing locations for Whataburger in 1986. He joined the company in 1998 and held several executive positions before becoming its leader, the company says.

madison.iszler@express-news.net