13 October 2023 , 12:30
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Burger King has revealed plans to open more than 60 new restaurants across the UK over the next two years.
The news comes as the fast food chain reported higher sales but a slump in profits for the past year. Burger King said higher cost inflation caused underlying pre-tax earnings to fall to £15.2million from £33.1million a year earlier, despite the increase in sales.
Although, Alasdair Murdoch, chief executive of Burger King UK, said the business "delivered good growth during the year, despite industry-wide headwinds" at a time of significant inflation for both energy and food.
Burger King, which has been owned by private equity firm Bridgepoint since 2017, said its continued expansion helped to drive a 39% jump in revenues to £294.5million in 2022. The fast food giant opened 32 new restaurants and acquired 74 from the largest franchise partner Karali Group in October last year. The acquired new stores added 36 Burger King Drive-Thru sites, nine In-Line sites, 27 Shopping Centre sites and two Leisure restaurants to its portfolio.
The Burger King boss Alasdair said: "I am pleased to announce a resilient full year performance and strong strategic progress in 2022 as we announce ambitious plans to open 60 new restaurants over the next two years.
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"Alongside new restaurant openings and the acquisition of our largest franchise partner, Karali Group, we continued our strategic focus on growing digital sales including home delivery and the introduction of our loyalty scheme on the Burger King app. We also continued to invest in our customer proposition - our remodelling programme is well underway with 42 restaurants being upgraded during 2022 and 2023, and we are progressing our menu innovation to cater to all preferences.
"Looking ahead we see significant opportunity for further growth and are encouraged by the strong pipeline of new openings, supported by additional funding from Bridgepoint."
Burger King currently runs 553 UK restaurants and directly owns 279 - the rest are run as franchises. In October 2022, Burger said it planned to increase the number of owned and franchised UK restaurants to 700 by 2026.