Restaurant Brands International posted a 2.7 per cent year-on-year increase in comparable sales for its Tim Hortons brand and only a 0.6 per cent comparable sales for Burger King this year.
While the Ontario-based company ‘s profit increased from $93.8 million to $247.6 million, total revenues slipped 0.2 per cent to $1.04 billion.
Despite the slow quarter, Daniel Schwartz, CEO of Restaurant Brands International said the company ended the second quarter with solid system-wide sales growth at both of their iconic brands, Tim Hortons and Burger King, driven by growth in their “global restaurant footprint and compelling product launches”.
“We continued to achieve strong earnings growth versus prior year results and believe that the execution of our brand-specific strategies by our franchisees and employees will drive sustainable value for years to come,” Schwartz said.
Neil Saunders, CEO of Conlumino, said although the headline result of a 0.2 per cent decline in overall revenue looks somewhat gloomy, this is mostly the consequence of a strong US dollar and weak Canadian dollar, a dynamic that has affected revenues from Tim Hortons.
Sauders said these slow figures are in-line with the recent moderate numbers from rivals such as McDonalds and Yum!
“This trend is being driven, primarily, by a slowdown in spending on eating out by American consumers – something that explains Burger King’s flat system-wide sales growth and 0.8 per cent decline in same-restaurant sales across the US and Canada.”
According to Saunders, with Burger King performing strongly in both Asia Pacific and Latin America – where same-restaurant sales rose by 5.3 per cent and 4.9 per cent, respectively, offset the weak numbers and helped nudge the division into overall growth.
Conlumino’s CEO said overall, Restaurant Brands continues to make progress; but with spend tightening and competition intensifying it now needs to up the pace of innovation if it is to grow further.
