Food & Beverage

Popeyes perks up RBI's Q2, Burger King, Tim Hortons pull it back down

The power of a really popular chicken sandwich buoyed otherwise dismal results for Restaurant Brands International and its Popeyes, Burger King and Tim Hortons brands in the second quarter of this year.

Image: iStock

August 6, 2020

Burger King, Popeyes and Tim Hortons parent company, Restaurant Brands International, reported a pretty dismal Q2, with revenue down 25% to $1.05 billion, according to earnings results released Thursday.

Although though the company's well-loved chicken chain and its even more loved chicken sandwich reported same-store sales growth of 24.8%, drops at Tim Hortons and Burger King dragged the company's overall results down, Tim Hortons dropped more than 29% for the quarter, and Burger King fell more than 13%.

Quarterly results for the brands and the company overall, however, did manage to beat estimates of 31 cents per share by coming in at an adjusted EPS of 33 cents. Overall, revenue was even with estimates at $1.05 billion.

Other quarterly results include:

Burger King net income down for the quarter from $257 million or 55-cents a share last year's quarter to $163 million or 35 cents per share this year.
Burger King systemwide sales growth fell 25.2% for the quarter over last year's period to $4.1 million.
Tim Horton systemwide sales growth fell 33.4% over last year's quarter to $1.1 million
Popeyes systemwide sales growth grew 24% to nearly $1.3 million
Burger King same-store sales fell 13.4%, with U.S. same-stores sales down 9.9%.
Total restaurant count for all three brands grew from 26,036 last year's quarter to 27,059 this year.
Total revenues for the company fell from $1.4 million last year's quarter to just under $1.1 million this year.
Tim Horton consolidated comp sales dropped from 0.5% last year to a loss of 29.3% this year.
Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen consolidated comp sales grew from an increase of 3% last year to an increase of 24.8% this year's quarter

"The COVID-19 pandemic has introduced a host of unprecedented challenges, but our proactive and coordinated response across the globe has helped drive a significant recovery in performance since March. …" CEO Jose Cil said in a company press release.

"During this crisis, the strength of our drive-thru, digital and delivery channels has been a particularly important differentiator as guests have looked to us for a combination of safety, convenience, quality and great value that few can match. It was encouraging to see our investments in digital channels drive meaningful incremental sales in the quarter and we're excited that in our home markets, digital sales across brands grew over 120% year-over-year and more than 30% quarter-over-quarter."