Burger King, Tim Hortons Drive Impressive Q2 Growth for Restaurant Brands International

Restaurant Brands International (RBI) announced robust second-quarter results on Tuesday, Aug. 8, crediting the impressive sales growth to the revival efforts of its subsidiaries, Burger King and Tim Hortons. Both brands recorded double-digit increases in same-store sales.

Restaurant Brands reported a double-digit increase in same-store sales of both Burger King and Tim Hortons. It was said that the burger joint’s recovery strategy worked and helped RBI beat the business analysts’ low earnings expectations.

The net sales of the Canadian-American fast food holding company surged by 8.3% to $1.78 billion. Its same-store sales increased by 9.6% in the quarter, and the firm acknowledged that the robust sales were driven by the big gains of its Burger King and Tim Hortons segments.

Restaurant Brands International’s chief executive officer, Josh Kobza, further told CNBC that their global markets and Tim Hortons in Canada observed that customer visits in their stores have increased in the second quarter. However, the traffic in U.S. stores for Burger King, Popeyes, and Firehouse Subs was “a little negative,” but this did not affect RBI’s overall sales.

“We showed strength across all our core categories, but also a lot of growth in some of the big target places we’re trying to take the business, like our P.M. food and cold beverages,” the CEO explained.

At any rate, Restaurant Brands’ efforts in reviving its Burger King brand are paying off, as shown in the recent sales. It invested about $10 million in its ad campaign in the United States to get people to visit the restaurants and enjoy the famous Whopper burgers.

In particular, the company launched the “Reclaim the Flame” campaign for BK, which proved to be a success, as shown in the boosted sales results. Reuters further reported that in the second quarter alone, BK put in a total of $12 million for its turnaround plan and as mentioned, $10 million was directed to advertising.

As per CNN Business, the ads were Whopper-specific and helped augment the sales. Now, the company’s next step is to upgrade its restaurants.

“We are going to do really high-quality remodels you should see that becoming an increasingly important part of the equation later this year and into next year,” RBI chief Kobza stated. “We need pretty much every Burger King all across the country to be modern, convenient, and competitive with all of the other concepts out there that have new and modern buildings.”

Photo by: Mike Mozart/Flickr(CC BY 2.0)