This years Franchise Disclosure Documents and the story of Burger King, Carrols and other intra-brand ownership changes

Reported and written by Joe Dunbar, Restaurantdata.com director of data.

Carrols served burgers, fries and shakes to customers for take-out. Most people dined in their cars. The food was fast, tasty and cheap. Our family of 7 could dine for less than $6. Whenever we drove down to Schenectady, we went hungry and stopped for lunch at Carrols.

In the 1970s, Carrols converted most of it’s locations to Burger King outlets. My college friends and I loved the Burger King in Utica, NY. We liked the have it your way motto and ordered burgers loaded with extra tomatoes and mayo. Over time, Carrols became Burger King’s largest franchisee with over 1,000 locations.

In early 2024, the parent company of Burger King (RBI) purchased all the shares of Carrols Corporation for $1 billion. This transaction followed a number of high volume Burger King franchisees going out of business in 2023 and 2024.

In the 2024 franchise disclosure document (FDD), we found 405 Burger King stores (5.8%) ceased operations and 302 (4.3%) transferred ownership. Around 2/3 (470) of the locations closed or transferred were owned by 10 franchisee groups:

-In February 2024, Premier Kings sold 150 restaurants in an auction. All remaining locations closed.

-Meridian Restaurants Unlimited sold 70 of their 91 stores in an auction. The buyers included Burger King and several large franchisees.
-Toms King sold their locations to several buyers for $33 million.
-EYM Group no longer includes Burger King in their list of brands.
-Five other large franchisees now have no stores in the 2024 Burger King FDD: Seven Restaurants, NDM Restaurants, NKS Restaurants, HR Restaurants and Southern King Holdings.

Burger King has begun to implement a massive strategic turnaround called Reclaim the Flame. Many of the locations transferred to the parent company will be retooled with a new look, better equipment and 21st century technology. As the units become ready, many will be sold to new franchisees. The 2024 FDD has many new muiti-unit franchisees. We will be tracking this massive transformation in press releases and the 2025 FDD.

___________

Restaurantdata is currently ingesting, harmonizing and homogenizing new unit and hierarchical ownership changes.  In this display, corporate takes “back” locations from franchisees and re-assigns to another, more successful franchisee operator.

Annually, Restaurantdata receives FDD documents for brands. FDD season typically runs from February to May. From April to June, Restaurantdata analyzes open locations and finds closed (and) broken chains. Pertinent changes and new hierarchical connections are made by September of each year.

If it’s important for you to stay abreast of the 135,000 Franchise owners in the U.S. , Please contact us for a show and tell demonstration.