Restaurant Brands International Inc. (
NYSE:QSR,
Forum) posted a Q2 sales increase of 7.9 % at Burger King locations in the U.S. and Canada after the chain brought back chicken fries, which are awful.
The company took the ungodly processed breaded strips of nugget-grade chicken off its menu in 2012, thereby saving the world from god’s wrath for a few years, while earning the wrath of random Youtubers.
But a temporary promotional return to menus last year saw people choose to put the nearly-food product in their mouths in large enough numbers that Burger King opted to bring them back permanently.
Restaurant Brands CEO Daniel Schwartz told reporters Chicken Fries are profitable ‘because they have a high gross margin and restaurants sell a lot of them,’ which could be translated as ‘it’s the stuff we used to toss out, so it’s hella cheap to throw them into a bag and take whatever people will give us for them.’
And what people will give for them is $3, apparently.
The company earned 5c per share, down from 21 cents per share a year ago. Total revenue rose to $1.04 billion, marginally beating Wall Street expectations.
Burger King sales rose 6.7% globally, with 141 new locations, while stable sister Tim Hortons which opened 52 new restaurants and is the fast food embodiment of a dollar store, jumped 5.5%.
In related news, one in four Canadians is clinically obese.
And I like donuts.
--Chris Parry
https://www.twitter.com/chrisparry