Burger King buys rival to grow in France

Burger King took his first steps to dethrone the McDonald's of the leader of the fast-food sector on the French market, with an agreement for the purchase of Quick, the network of Belgian eateries present throughout France.
With the acquisition, Burger King will increase ten-fold the number of its restaurants in France, returning to a market that for decades is dominated by Quick and McDonald's.
"The transaction will significantly accelerate the growth of our network Burger King in France, a strategically important market," said yesterday Daniel Schwartz, CEO of Restaurant Brands International, parent company of Burger King, during the announcement of the operation yesterday.
The France has been showing more and more interesting for fast-food companies, since the demand for hamburgers has been growing a lot. A report from the consulting firm Gira Conseil showed that 970 million hamburgers were sold in France in 2013, representing half of all sandwiches sold. That compares to just one in seven in 2007.
Sales in the fast-food eateries have exceeded those of traditional restaurants for the first time in 2012, causing problems of conscience in a country which boasts of haute cuisine.
Local critics comes attributing the decline of tradition to sit at the table to eat the growing Americanization of French culture. McDonald's was the target of the anti-globalization protests that occurred in most of the 90 in France, but from then on he rebuilt his reputation and today has its own nickname in French, "McDo".
He now has 1,354 points of sale in France, including the Louvre and the Champs-Elysées in Paris. The country is the second most lucrative market of McDonald's in terms of contribution to the overall operating profit.
Burger King has annual sales of € 5 million and approximately 50 restaurants in France. After the transaction, it will take about 500 units and sales of € 1 billion, as reported in a statement.
Burger King left France in 1997 because of weak sales, returning only in 2013, when promised to intensify the competition against McDonald's and Quick. With the deal, the Quick will carry the name Burger King. Outside France the Quick name will be maintained. The network has 509 restaurants in the world.
Through the deal, the Groupe Bertrand, majority shareholder of Burger King France, buy the Quick Group of Qualium Investissement, a subsidiary of Caisse des Dépôts, a State investment fund French.