Popeyes Comparable Sales Increased by 34% in Fourth Quarter

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Comparable sales for Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen grew 12% in the fiscal year ended Dec. 31, 2019, which included a 34% jump in the fourth quarter.

José E. Cil, chief executive officer for Restaurant Brands International, Inc. said, “As you might expect, a good deal of this growth was driven by the launch of the chicken sandwich, which surely ranks among the greatest product launches in the history of Q.S.R.”

Burger King, another restaurant chain owned by Restaurant Brands, reported strong international sales and global comparable sales growth of 3.4% in the fiscal year. Executives of Restaurant Brands in the earnings call gave details on plans for Tim Hortons, which had a comparable sales decline of 1.5%.

Mr. Cil said, “We also had billions of media impressions and generated earned media worth considerably more than the size of our entire annual U.S. ad fund spend.”

Systemwide sales for Popeyes increased 19% for the year to $4,397 million, which included a fourth-quarter gain of 42% to $1,327 million.

Traffic driven by demand for the chicken sandwich helped to increase sales in the entire Popeyes menu in the fourth quarter.

Mr Cil added, “Just to give you an idea about that, following the launch of the chicken sandwich in November, only about 50% of total tickets of Popeyes in Q4 contained a purchase of the chicken sandwich, which means a lot of the growth came from growth in other categories in our menu, which is quite exciting.”

Globally, 3,316 Popeyes restaurants were in operation at the end of the fiscal year.

Systemwide, Toronto-based Restaurant Brands International reported net income of $1,111 million, or $2.40 per share on the common stock, in the fiscal year, which was down 2.9% from $1,144 million, or $2.46 per share, in the previous fiscal year. Systemwide sales of $34,034 million were up 6%. Burger King reported systemwide sales of $22,921 million for the fiscal year, up 9%. Comparable sales in the United States increased 1.7% for the fiscal year behind momentum in core offerings and a strong performance from the Impossible Whopper, a plant-based burger that is now part of a 2 for $6 promotion.