Burger King rebuilt U.S. sales, then began reselling Carrols' stores to local owners

CNBC reports that since late 2022 Burger King has run a U.S. turnaround built on revamped marketing, better food and renovated restaurants. It has paid off: the chain recently overtook Wendy's as the number two U.S. burger chain by system sales, and its latest quarter showed domestic same-store sales growth of 8.5%, against 0.8% at McDonald's U.S.

To speed up modernisation, parent Restaurant Brands International bought its largest U.S. franchisee, Carrols Restaurant Group, in 2024 for roughly $1 billion. The deal added 1,023 company-owned restaurants to the 175 it already held, many acquired through franchisee bankruptcy sales. Restaurant Brands always planned to resell most of them to smaller local franchisees and end up with about 300 company-operated restaurants out of more than 6,000 in the U.S.

The refranchising is deliberately slow. Burger King is prioritising franchisees who live in the community and visit often, a shift from the days when larger private-equity-backed operators got preferential treatment. It initially targeted about 300 sales in 2026 but now expects about 200, partly because it vets each buyer, even interviewing the buyers' general managers about owner involvement.

Franchisees quoted by CNBC report early gains: one group says its market is up 21% year over year, with traffic up 16%, and a new Salt Lake City owner says customer complaints have fallen sharply since February. Restaurant Brands has committed more than $1 billion to remodels and wants 85% to 90% of domestic restaurants to look modern by the end of 2028.

Overtook Wendy's as No. 2 U.S. burger chain; domestic same-store sales rose 8.5% in the latest quarter versus 0.8% at McDonald's.

Buying Carrols gave Burger King control of more than a thousand restaurants so remodels and operations could be fixed fast.

Local, hands-on owners are thought to be accountable to their neighbours and visit their stores regularly.

Franchisee profitability is the explicit centre of the plan, echoing the Domino's comeback that Doyle led and Curtis worked on.

Selling stores generates cash and an asset-light model that typically lifts earnings, per analysts.

Buy the weak operators to fix the stores quickly, then sell them back deliberately to local owner-operators rather than the biggest private-equity-backed bidders.

The process will take years because the focus on smaller operators slows it. The refranchising target for 2026 was cut from about 300 to about 200 stores, and the chain still faces slow traffic, inflation and high interest rates. Franchisee results are self-reported and cover small samples.