Burger King expects 90% of its systems to be retrofitted by 2028. Photo courtesy of Burger King.
Burger King is doubling, perhaps even tripling, its efforts to renovate more restaurants.
The Miami-based burger chain announced Tuesday that it plans to invest an additional $300 million to extend its “Royal Reset” makeover program through 2028. This investment is in addition to the $250 million the company is currently investing as part of its $400 million Reuse Project. Flame” activation program.
The move involves Burger King’s $1 billion acquisition of franchisee Carroll’s Restaurant Group, which will see it renovate 600 restaurants in-house. Burger King expects 90% of the chain’s 7,000 restaurants to reflect the brand’s new image by the end of 2028.
For Burger King, renovations are key to increasing sales for the brand. Executives are putting a lot of money into this initiative, believing that customers prefer to eat in new, fresh restaurants.
This, combined with operational improvement efforts, aims to improve the everyday customer experience.
Burger King’s same-store sales in the U.S. and Canada rose 3.8%, slowing from a 6.4% increase in the fourth quarter, parent company Restaurant Brands International (RBI) said Tuesday.
However, the key metric increased by 12.5% on a two-year “stacked” basis and by 8.6% in the fourth quarter.
Same-store sales rose 5.7% at Popeyes, 6.9% at Tim Hortons and 0.3% at Firehouse Subs, according to RBI. The brand’s same-store sales in international markets increased by 4.2%.
RBI’s revenue for the quarter rose 9.4% to $1.7 billion. Net income increased 18% to $328 million, or 72 cents per share.
Much of RBI’s attention over the past year has focused on the Burger King brand. The Burger King brand has suffered for years from low unit sales and low profitability, and has struggled to recover from the pandemic.
This led to a surge in bankruptcy filings by franchisees in early 2023 and the closure of hundreds of stores. Burger King has closed more than 325 locations in the past two years, according to data from sister company Technomic in the restaurant business.
This spurred a management shake-up at the brand, with RBI hiring former Domino’s Pizza CEO Patrick Doyle as CEO. And that spurred investments that ultimately amounted to more than $2 billion, including the acquisition of Carroll’s, the Reclaim the Flame program, and various makeovers.
Burger King spent $81 million of its original $250 million on renovations and $79 million of the $150 million on marketing.
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