Burger King's Parent Company Welcomes New Child: Firehouse Subs
No sibling rivalry here, but maybe a big opportunity.
Who knew Firehouse Subs was worth a billion dollars? I guess Restaurant Brands International, the parent company of Burger King, Popeyes, and Tim Hortons, knew the sandwich chain's worth. Restaurant Brands International recently bought Firehouse Subs for the cool price of $1 billion, reports Nation's Restaurant News. A billion dollars—that's a whole lot of sandwiches, right?
A Florida-based company, Firehouse Subs has over 1,100 locations across the United States. To put that in perspective, Subway had 23,801 restaurants in the United States in 2019, which is a slight decline from 2018 when the restaurant had 24,798 locations nationwide. (Its number of international locations similarly fell.) Firehouse subs, meanwhile, is growing: Despite the pandemic hitting restaurants hard, this chain saw a 20% increase in sales for the first 10 months of 2021, reports CNBC.
In the great sub sandwich race, I wonder where Firehouse Subs ranks? I've never had it, but judging by the $1.1 billion in systemwide sales the brand expects to make in 2021, some people out there must love it. Let us know if you're a fan.
The majority of Firehouse Subs locations are operated by franchisees, with their headquarters operating out of Jacksonville, Florida. It looks like even with this deal, Firehouse Subs will continue to have some control over its own brand: The headquarters will remain in the company's hometown and the CEO and CFO are both expected to stay as well.
With this all-cash, billion-dollar deal, Restaurant Brands International has an even fuller line up of fast food brands under its belt. The company owns more than 27,000 restaurants in more than 100 countries, and 10,000 of those are in the U.S. For all we know, RBI may be plotting fast food world domination. Might be a good idea to keep an eye on this parent's expanding roster.