Sales of giant Burger King franchisee hurt by Omicron

Syracuse, N.Y.-based Carrols Restaurant Group (CRG) expects the surging omicron variant to have likely hurt its Burger King sales in the last two weeks of the month.

Carrols owns 1,000 Burger King units.

According to Carrols CEO Dan Accordino, they believe the initial impact of the omicron variant began slowing sales trends in the last two weeks of December.

Previous to that, Carrols’ Burger King restaurants demonstrated strong sequential improvement in comparable restaurant sales, improving through the last three months of 2021.

Same-store sales of the company’s Burger King restaurants rose 7.4 percent in the quarter ended Dec. 31 after posting a 9.7 percent increase in November.

Despite the December slowdown, its same-store sales still increased 8.3 percent in the month.

Carrols operates nearly one in seven Burger King restaurants in the US, its results impact the brand.

Burger King had been struggling in the US, triggering management changes.

Most of Carrols’ Burger King units are in the Northeast, which is the hardest hit by the omicron variant.

Burger King sales were due largely through average check 12.1 percent growth, including menu price increases and fewer promotions. Traffic at the company’s restaurants dropped 4.2 percent.

Carrols also operates 65 Popeyes restaurants, whose fourth-quarter same-store sales increased 1 percent.