Bloomberg Television · Oct 30, 2026 · 9 min
With Tom Curtis, President of Burger King U.S. and Canada
Photo via bloomberg.com
Burger King's comparable sales grew 8.4%, against the 6.2% Wall Street had expected. Tom Curtis, President of Burger King U.S. and Canada, told Romaine Bostick on Bloomberg Television's The Close that the gain is mostly lapsed customers returning, not regulars spending more.
Rivals spent the past couple of years cutting prices to win traffic. Burger King held its prices steady, raised them modestly this year, and put the money into the food and the restaurants instead.
"The people that had abandoned Burger King are coming back... and it's a nostalgic latent love that they're finding again." — Tom Curtis
Tom runs the chain's business across the US and Canada and personally answered more than 3,000 customer calls on a listening line he launched in February. He traced the turnaround to a reinvestment program that began five years ago.
The full segment is covered here so you can skip it.
Here are the 6 insights that matter.
Key Takeaways
Lapsed customers, not heavier spending by regulars, drove Burger King's 8.4% comparable-sales growth
Burger King skipped the value-wars discounting and held prices steady while improving the food
Average unit volume rose 35% on nuggets and 40% on King Junior kids' meals
The nugget fix came from customer calls Tom answered himself
About 60% of restaurants have been remodeled; capital is what holds back the rest
New-store growth is flat to slightly down until every existing restaurant is appealing
1. Lapsed Customers Come Back
Romaine opened on the 8.4% comparable-sales gain, against Wall Street's 6.2% estimate. Tom said the growth is mostly people who had stopped going to Burger King and are now returning out of nostalgia.
Burger King's growth is coming from customers who had abandoned the chain
Tom called it the payoff of reinvestment in restaurants and operations that began five years ago. Before that, he said, Burger King spent two decades letting its American and Canadian customers down.
Comparable sales measure sales at restaurants open at least a year, so the figure strips out growth from new locations. Returning lapsed customers lift that number without a single new store.
