Burger King Beats the Odds, Delivers Strong First Quarter
Burger King bucked some big fast food trends—and outshone rival McDonald's—by posting a 9.6% jump in systemwide sales and 4.6% climb in same-store sales last quarter. The same store-figure zoomed well past analysts' prediction of 2.5% improvement. Sales at North American locations open at least 13 months grew 6.9%, the best result in almost a decade.
The healthy results were driven by new specialty items like chicken fries and by discounts on evergreen items like chicken nuggets. Burger King offered nuggets at $0.15 a piece in response to McDonald's deal pricing 50 nuggets at $9.99, or just shy of $0.20 each. McDonald's has struggled lately as fast food tastes shift to more personalized and ostensibly healthier options at the likes of Shake Shack and Chipotle.
