Burger King UK, one of the top-three most recognised Quick Service Restaurant (QSR) chains in the UK, today announces a strong trading performance and strategic progress for the year ended 31 December 2023.
The business achieved a 30% increase in total revenue to £381.8 million (2022: £294.5 million) and a 3% increase in like-for-like sales, reflecting the continued resilience of the QSR market and strong demand for Burger King UK’s high-quality and affordable food offering.
Despite continued macro-economic challenges, Burger King UK continued to trade resiliently, leveraging new store openings and integration of the Karali business acquired in September 2022 to progress the business’ rapid expansion in the UK.
Operating profit for Burger King UK significantly improved to £13.4 million for the year (2022: loss of £20.7 million) due to a combination of factors including the increase in revenue and good cost management. Adjusted EBITDA improved to £23.3 million (2022: £15.1 million).
Trading has remained resilient in the first half of 2024. Burger King UK continues to experience sales growth and is well-positioned to profitably convert these sales.
Burger King UK will continue its ambitious expansion plans as it benefits from recent restaurant openings and acquisitions and with good visibility on the pipeline of future openings.
Restaurant portfolio and openings
During 2023, Burger King UK opened 18 new restaurants, including new Drive Thru restaurants in Castleford, Barrhead, Bolton Logistics Park, and Kirkcaldy. It also completed the full integration of 74 Burger King UK restaurants following the acquisition of Karali Group in September 2022.
In addition, Burger King UK’s attractive remodelling programme continued with the upgrade of 10 restaurants in 2023 driving an immediate uplift of sales at the locations. This forms part of its strategy to energise its restaurant portfolio, deliver an improved customer experience and a new visual identity, and diversify its customer proposition through the introduction of pre-order digital kiosks and digital menu screens.
Burger King UK received an additional £35 million of funding from its majority shareholder, Bridgepoint, during the year to support these initiatives.
Evolving customer proposition
Burger King UK introduced several new products during the period including extending its popular collaboration with Doritos to launch the Doritos Chilli Heatwave Chicken Fries. The business’ Gourmet Kings premium offering drove growth, with the launch of the Peppercorn Angus and Chimichurri Steakhouse Angus, alongside the under £4.99 and £5.99 King Box menu bundle.
Burger King UK invested in digital transformation by advancing its UK-wide loyalty scheme within its app which now has over 2.8m users. The personalised, digital offers have driven strong customer engagement, helping to grow digital ordering and enhanced customer experience. Alongside this, the business continued to expand its home delivery offering and has partnerships with major home delivery operators including Deliveroo, Just Eat and Uber Eats.
Burger King for Good
Burger King UK advanced its ESG efforts through Burger King UK’s responsible business strategy, ‘Burger King for Good’.
With a focus on managing its business and supply chain sustainably, Burger King UK has continued its aim to achieve 100% independently certified sustainable sourcing across all key commodities by 2030. In 2023, initiatives included reducing overnight energy usage with the ‘Save While You Sleep’ campaign and enhancing food waste measurement and reduction in restaurants.
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