TORONTO, Feb. 11, 2021 /CNW/ - Nearly a year ago,
Burger King launched a viral campaign showing the iconic Whopper
sandwich covered in mold to demonstrate the beauty of no artificial
preservatives. The soundtrack was from Aretha Franklin singing, 'what a difference a
day made'.
I was reflecting on that campaign, and all the other plans we
had in the first quarter of 2020 before countries, companies and
families around the world reset all their priorities to focus on
winning our most important fight in a generation.
What a difference a year made.
We're into our second month of 2021 and our motivation and
mindset has been forever changed for the better because of the year
we all endured.
We learned so much managing through this pandemic. We learned
that our three iconic brands of Burger King, Tim Hortons and
Popeyes are loved, trusted and have so much more opportunity for
growth. We learned that our investments to drive accelerated
digital sales came just at the right time as our guests' purchasing
habits rapidly moved online during the pandemic. We learned the
enduring value of drive-thru as a safe and efficient sales channel,
especially with governments mandating dining room
closures.
Food and Beverage Quality
We've made important progress in 2020 on the quality of our
food. This includes making the Whopper free of colors, flavors and
preservatives from artificial sources. It includes launching fresh
cracked eggs in all our breakfast sandwiches at Tim Hortons and
rolling out a rich, new dark roast blend of coffee. It includes two
years of work to create what is now perhaps the most famous chicken
sandwich in the world from Popeyes.
All three brands are planning exciting product quality launches
this year, including a new chicken sandwich at Burger King; new
lunch sandwiches and expansion of our cold beverages at Tim
Hortons; and exciting new innovations at Popeyes that build on the
culinary genius of the Chicken Sandwich. This is a deliberate
journey, now more than a year-long at each of the brands, to create
quality, craveable menu items that excite our guests.
Guest Experience
Last year, we outlined the importance of revolutionizing the
drive thru experience. With well more than half of our sales coming
through the drive thru in our home markets even before the
pandemic, enhancements like our outdoor digital menu boards
significantly change the way guests interact with our brands.
We have now installed outdoor digital menu boards at around a
third of the roughly 10,000 Burger King and Tim Hortons drive-thrus
in the US and Canada. The rollout
of outdoor digital menu boards at Popeyes is now also underway and
on a combined basis, we expect to modernize over 10,000 drive-thrus
across North America by mid-2022.
All indications are that our guests are excited by the better,
quicker and contactless service they are receiving. This is an
addition to our opportunity to be a leader in our home markets in
guest-centric, predictive selling through our drive-thrus and fully
integrated, easy-to-use loyalty in all service modes.
With many elements of our technology infrastructure now in place
and fully integrated, we've increased our focus on improving and
personalizing our interactions with our guests through our digital
platforms. We believe this type of tailored interaction will be an
increasingly important differentiator as digital adoption continues
to increase over time.
Digital Leadership
Driving rapid digital innovation has been essential to the
recovery of our business. We have increased support for and
continued to build on our e-commerce platforms, reimagined service
opportunities like curbside pickup and expanded delivery services
into thousands of new restaurants. The outcome has been the more
than doubling of digital sales in North
America.
We saw the exciting adoption of our Tims Rewards program
in Canada, with one-third of all
Canadian adults using it within just 18 months of its launch. Our
app is one of the most used on a monthly basis in the Canadian food
space and we are encouraged by the level of engagement we've seen
from our guests. A winning loyalty program is one that our guests
love and value – and one that our franchisees see driving growth in
their restaurants. I'm proud to say what we are seeing on both is
very encouraging.
Our Burger King app in the US continues to see a growing active
user base supported by improvements to the user experience,
compelling digital offers and engaging campaigns over the last
year. We're excited to make the next big step and have launched
tests of our new loyalty program in select markets across the
country.
Additionally, we continue to expand our 'white label' delivery
program, which allows our guests to order food directly through our
app with delivery fulfillment from our aggregator partners, but at
a more favorable cost to our restaurant owners.
We have been on an exciting digital journey to become a leader
in our industry and we have invested in strong digital and
technology talent to join our global team and work on these
strategic projects that we are rolling out to strengthen our
business model and improve the level of service we provide to our
guests.
Most Loved Brands
Core to our vision of building the most-loved restaurant brands
in the world are the values that we live by as a company: life is
too short for small dreams; you value things more when you own
them; your growth is based entirely on what you do and how you do
it; a wide range of voices and perspectives make us stronger; find
ways to do things differently to make them better; and above all,
be a hard-working, good person.
While the leadership teams for our three restaurant brands have
been laser-focused on the recovery of our business, we have made
sure that a few, important long-term priorities didn't get lost in
the fog of business disruption.
Earlier this year, we announced the first global visual identity
update at Burger King in 20 years. The team spent most of 2020
doing the hard work of tying together all the essential elements
for a unified visual identity, including our logo, colors,
uniforms, restaurant design, digital platforms and packaging – all
designed to build brand love, and keep Burger King fresh, modern
and an industry trend setter.
Tim Hortons improved its perception in Canada in 2020, in large part because of our
commitment to the communities where our restaurant owners live and
work. This included widespread support from our franchisees for
frontline workers with free coffee and baked goods, along with
mobile coffee trucks that donated products at hospitals and
long-term care facilities across the country throughout the
pandemic.
Sustainable Company and a Great Place to Work
In 2020 we also announced our Restaurant Brands for Good
framework and published a number of major initiatives on our
website. We advanced work on sustainable packaging and recycling;
created new policies on animal welfare and deforestation; made
large shifts in our use of real ingredients and concluded a
comprehensive carbon footprint analysis that will allow us to make
substantive new commitments in 2021.
Additionally, we made important commitments on diversity and
inclusion in 2020 and once again achieved 100% on the Corporate
Equality Index as a positive LGBTQ+ workplace. And, for the
first time in our history, we were certified as a Great Place to
Work because of positive reviews from our employees across more
than 60 questions about culture and management. This reflects the
hard work of so many of our managers who have kept our teams close
and engaged everyday while many have been working from home.
2020 Business Performance
In terms of business performance in 2020, I want to say to our
many shareholders – and as substantial shareholders ourselves –
that we are confident that our efforts throughout 2020 in food and
beverage quality, restaurant experience, digital leadership and
brand building will be beneficial to returning our business to the
growth we know we are capable of in all three brands. Further, we
believe the foundation we laid has positioned us exceptionally well
to win market share as economies around the world reopen and
routines normalize.
So much of our growth story has, and will continue to be,
anchored to the amazing power of our network of franchisees that
have driven unit growth from just hundreds a decade ago at Burger
King, to consistently well over a thousand across our three brands
before this past year. Heading into 2021, we are picking up where
we left off, and expect to deliver unit growth generally in line
with 2018 and 2019 levels.
Finally, I am very thankful to our guests, owners, employees and
shareholders for your confidence in RBI. The quality of our plans
today is the result of a team that refused to be distracted by
short-term barriers that we couldn't control and instead focused on
the right long-term priorities to grow our restaurant brands for
many years to come.
What a difference a year made.
Jose Cil
CEO, Restaurant Brands International
Forward-Looking Statements
This letter contains certain forward-looking statements and
information, which reflect management's current beliefs and
expectations regarding future events, initiatives and operating
performance and speak only as of the date hereof. These
forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance
and involve a number of risks and uncertainties. These
forward-looking statements include statements about our
expectations regarding the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on our
results of operations, liquidity and prospects and those of our
franchisees and our ability to continue to navigate the impact of
the pandemic, our expectations regarding our 2021 and long-term
restaurant growth goals and our progress toward those goals, the
impact of our strategic initiatives on the long-term growth
prospects of our brands, the timing of technology roll out, our
future plans with respect to our sustainability, diversity and
inclusion initiatives, and the impact of our initiatives on the
financial health of our franchisees. The factors that could cause
actual results to differ materially from RBI's expectations are
detailed in filings of RBI with the Securities and Exchange
Commission and applicable Canadian securities regulatory
authorities, such as its annual and quarterly reports and current
reports on Form 8-K, and include the following: risks related to
unforeseen events such as pandemics; risks related to supply chain;
risks related to ownership and leasing of properties; risks related
to our franchisees financial stability and their ability to access
and maintain the liquidity necessary to operate their business;
risks related to RBI's ability to successfully implement its
domestic and international growth strategy and risks related to its
international operations; risks related to RBI's ability to compete
domestically and internationally in an intensely competitive
industry; risks related to technology; and changes in applicable
laws and regulations, including tax laws or interpretations
thereof. Other than as required under U.S. federal securities laws
or Canadian securities laws, we do not assume a duty to update
these forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new
information, subsequent events or circumstances, change in
expectations or otherwise.
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SOURCE Restaurant Brands International Inc.