Burger King To Buy Carrols Restaurant Group

[Alpha8472]

Carrols owns 1,022 Burger King restaurants across 22 states and 60 Popeye's. Burger King says they will remodel the restaurants and then sell them to new franchisees.

We could see many remodeled Burger King restaurants. For some time there will corporate run Burger Kings. Will this improve these restaurants and bring back the customers?

https://www.nrn.com/news/burger-king-pa ... rant-group

[storewanderer]

Burger King has very few corporate operated locations left. This will be a significant increase in the number of corporate operated units. I am not sure they are set up to support so many corporate operated units. They could just keep the structure Carrols has but based on what I've heard about Carrols I'm not sure that is the right answer.

Also stating their intention to re-franchise the units before even taking them over is interesting. At this point all efforts/discussions should have to do with turning the units around. Already saying they are going to re-franchise them... pretty interesting.

I think they didn't want to work with this Carrols anymore but didn't want to lose hundreds of units so buying them out was the best solution.

[ClownLoach]

Burger King has very few corporate operated locations left. This will be a significant increase in the number of corporate operated units. I am not sure they are set up to support so many corporate operated units. They could just keep the structure Carrols has but based on what I've heard about Carrols I'm not sure that is the right answer.

Also stating their intention to re-franchise the units before even taking them over is interesting. At this point all efforts/discussions should have to do with turning the units around. Already saying they are going to re-franchise them... pretty interesting.

I think they didn't want to work with this Carrols anymore but didn't want to lose hundreds of units so buying them out was the best solution.

Glancing at their financials as best I could (all the links to full annual reports are magically broken), I think Carrols didn't have the money to clean up these old, dated restaurants. They were going to remodel just a few dozen next year. I am shocked as to how many stale, dingy Burger King restaurants are out there that have received not even a coat of paint since the 80s. If Burger King is serious about improving their image (and supposedly their food quality which has gone down the toilet), then they are still going to struggle to get customers to recognize any improvements if the restaurant looks like someplace their grandparents used to dine in. When you've got a "poor" franchisee like this that drags down the image, it can take the entire chain down. So probably a good idea to buy them out, self-fund the remodels which probably will come from taking what would have been the franchisee income, and then sell them to someone else in good working order.

[Alpha8472]

There were several totally preserved 80s style Burger King restaurants near me in the San Francisco Bay Area. Everything was virtually unchanged from the 80s up until a few years ago. They started remodeling them only recently.

There is a 90s style one near me left. Another 80s style one in San Ramon, California just began a remodel. I will miss the 80s decor. I am shocked that these restaurants have survived so long without any remodeling.

What I don't like is the new dark wood Burger King decor. The tables are faux wood, the flooring is faux wood, etc. It looks so dark and boring.

If you spend that much money, you might as well make it eye catching and stylish. You want a comfortable and memorable restaurant.

[storewanderer]

Burger King in Reno area has kept up on store remodels and image updates over the years. The units are relatively low traffic and generally look pretty clean. The problem is if the food quality isn't up to par, none of this image stuff matters. That is where the issue is with them in this market.

I've seen some pretty outdated Burger King units when traveling.

[Romr123]

Conversely the Carrols locations around us in Michigan have pretty good food/service but dated facilities. The updated facilities seem to be with the bankrupt franchisee that closed last year.