News

Popeyes, Burger King push RBI up, Tim Hortons drags it down

Photo: iStock

October 28, 2019

Coming off a quarter that saw its Popeyes brand take a profitable part in the chicken sandwich wars, the parent company of Popeyes and Burger King parent — Restaurant Brands International (RBI) — announced strong Q3 sales growth nearing 9%, which the company said in a news release is its best quarterly comparable sales growth in four years. 

And of course, a part of that growth came from Popeyes and its spicy chicken sandwich, which catapulted the brand to one of its strongestcomparable sales growth results in nearly 20 years, according to the financial report. That explains why earlier today the company tweeted it would bring the sandwich back nationally on Nov. 3. 

But all was not well across RBI brands, since its Tim Hortons surprised analysts with a report of declining comparable sales of 1.4%. Meantime though, comp sales at Popeyes soared 9.7%, while at Burger King — which was profiting from its introduction of the Impossible Whopper — sales grew 4.8%. Both brands exceeded the prediction of market analysts. 

Other key highlights of the quarter that ended Sept. 30 include: 

• Revenue rose 6% to $1.46 billion. 
• Net income rose to $201 million, or 75 cents per share compared to $134 million, or 53 cents the prior year's quarter. 
• Net restaurant growth of 5.8%.
• Comparable sales of 4.8%, including US comparable sales of 5%.

"During the third quarter, we grew system-wide sales nearly 9% through a combination of strong global comparable sales growth and restaurant expansion," said RBI CEO Jose Cil in a release about the quarterly financials. "At Burger King, we continue to see exciting growth around the world, with our system-wide sales increasing approximately 15% internationally for the quarter and the successful launch of our Impossible Whopper driving 5% comparable sales growth in the U.S., our strongest level since 2015. 

"Popeyes had one of its best quarters in nearly two decades, achieving comparable sales growth of more than 10% in the U.S. At Tim Hortons, although we had a challenging quarter, we remain confident in the pillars of our Winning Together Plan and are excited about the long-term growth prospects of the Tims brand and business in Canada."

The company's board declared a dividend of 50 cents per common share and partnership exchangeable unit of Restaurant Brands International Limited Partnership, payable Jan. 3, 2020 to shareholders and unitholders of record at the close of business on Dec. 17, 2019.

Inset photo: Popeyes via Twitter