From Crew Shift To Ownership
Jeremy Kline began working at Taco Bell at 15, later becoming Burger King North America's director of franchising, and today he's an owner himself. In February, he snapped up 16 Burger King restaurants in the Salt Lake City area that were previously run by Meridian Restaurants Unlimited. "I was trying to sell these restaurants here in Salt Lake City for two years, and I couldn't really find anyone to buy them, but I saw the potential," Kline said.
Before its 2023 Chapter 11 filing, Meridian ranked among Burger King's larger U.S. franchisees, operating more than 120 restaurants across nine states. To run his new business, Kline moved from Miami to Utah. That is by design.
"We want franchisees who live and work in the communities that they serve," Burger King U.S. President Tom Curtis said. A photo dated Aug. 17, 2026, in Miami shows those classic Burger King crowns stacked in a restaurant, a tiny visual of a brand leaning into local ownership.
Refranchising Is The Core Of The Plan
Beginning in late 2022, Burger King embarked on a turnaround, refreshing marketing, improving food, and remodeling stores. The early read is positive. Most recently, based on system sales, Burger King edged past Wendy's to claim the No. 2 spot among U.S. burger chains.
In the latest quarter, Burger King's U.S. same-store sales rose 8.5%, while McDonald's U.S. comparable sales rose 0.8%. Over the past year, Restaurant Brands shares have risen about 6%, while McDonald's is down 23%; even so, the company's market capitalization remains more than six times larger.
Refranchising is the lever to keep that momentum going. Selling company-run stores raises cash and shifts the model to lighter assets that typically produce higher earnings. Operators with their own money at stake also tend to run tighter ships. "Getting these stores in the hands of better operators is a key part of the turnaround," TD Cowen analyst Andrew Charles said.
In 2024, Restaurant Brands purchased Carrols Restaurant Group, its biggest U.S. Burger King franchisee, for roughly $1 billion. That deal brought 1,023 company-owned locations onto Restaurant Brands' books, on top of 175 it already controlled, many picked up through franchisee bankruptcy sales before the turnaround took hold. The plan was never to keep most of them. The goal is to retain about 300 restaurants under direct company operation while franchisees run the rest of Burger King's more than 6,000 U.S. locations, and it said at the Carrols closing in 2024 that those stores would be refranchised over seven years.
Originally, the chain set a goal to refranchise about 300 locations this year, yet Curtis now anticipates selling only about 200 restaurants in 2026 to ensure each buyer is a strong match. "A franchising contract is 20 years. The average marriage in the U.S. is 8.2. So you got to get it right," he told CNBC.
The New Owner Playbook
Who buys matters as much as how many stores change hands. Burger King is prioritizing smaller, locally based operators rather than large, private equity-backed consolidators. Keeping owners close to their restaurants means more frequent visits and more accountability when feedback comes from neighbors.
That approach likely reduces private equity's role; Curtis said there is less of it today than in many years and likely even less ahead, and that the right partner has significant equity and a long-term view, not a five-year plan. Other chains may value PE capital in a high rate world, but Burger King is focused on operator skill and setting owners up to succeed financially, including through its Crown Your Career program that helps leaders and managers obtain financing. Curtis added that even corporate staff from sister brand Tim Hortons have signed term sheets.
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The operator-first mindset shows up elsewhere too. Before joining Burger King, Curtis spent about two decades as a Domino's franchisee, then moved into Domino's management, working with then-CEO Patrick Doyle on a turnaround that revamped the pizza recipe and ran a self-aware ad comparing the old crust to cardboard, while focusing behind the scenes on franchisee profitability. Doyle has been Restaurant Brands' executive chair since late 2022.
Burger King is taking a similar tack by centering operator earnings. "Everything that we're doing is based around franchisee profitability," Kline said. He also noted the goal is not just bigger sales or traffic numbers, nor is it about posting a splashy figure for investors.
In July 2025, operating as CKJ Management, industry veterans Todd Jackson, Thomas Crowson and Colby Kaminer purchased 20 Burger King restaurants in Florida after nearly two decades as franchisees of Southern fast-casual brand Newk's Eatery. After the deal closed, they learned Burger King's diligence included visits to their Newk's restaurants.
"We found out that Burger King came to our restaurants and interviewed our general managers and wanted to know 'Are the owners in the restaurants? Do you know who they are, how involved they are?'" Crowson said. Not every buyer is new to Burger King either.
In June, Kevin Haas marked 40 years as a franchisee, and a few months later he and his wife purchased three former Carrols restaurants, bringing K&JK Enterprises to 15 locations. He said the chain's recent performance helped make the numbers work.
It is not an easy time to run a restaurant. Real headwinds include softer guest counts, elevated inflation, and interest rates that remain high. First time franchisee Brian Orlando, a former consumer packaged goods executive who bought Delaware restaurants, is leaning into culture and in store execution to improve results. The bet across the system is that better operators plus better restaurants add up to better sales, which then fund more improvements.
What This Means For Your Money
If Burger King keeps moving company run units into owner operators' hands and those operators perform, you get a flywheel: more profitable stores, more cash to reinvest, better customer experiences, and potentially better corporate results. Restaurant Brands' stock has nudged higher as the U.S. recovery shows early traction alongside strong international growth. The refranchising cadence might be slower than first imagined, but the direction looks set.
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