Burger King has reported its first earnings since it went public again. The company earned just over $6.6 million, but that was down from third quarter earnings of last year that were $38.8 million.
Burger King Worldwide, one of the largest hamburger chains in the country, said its net income in the third quarter fell by an astronomical figure of 83%. The hamburger chain was one of just a few publically traded companies that released quarter earnings reports during the shutdown of Wall Street due to Hurricane Sandy.
Burger King’s profit of $6.6 million represented earnings of 2 cents per share, compared to 11 cents per share on $38.8 million from last year’s third quarter. Revenue for the fast food giant was $451 million a drop of $26% from last year’s $607 million.
Burger King is currently launching a brand new menu update with plenty of snack wraps, salad, fruit smoothies, frappes and is hiring high profile celebrities and athletes, such as Jay Leno and David Beckham to promote the brand.
The company announced it was also selling all remaining company owned restaurants to established franchisees to make their balance sheet more stable and to shield it from cost swings in commodities. At present, franchises own 95% of all existing Burger King restaurants.
Bernardo Hees, the CEO of Burger King, said it was not only about a new product or marketing, but the turnaround effort for the company has been costly. He also said the competition has been very strong and that has taken its toll along with the challenging economic environment worldwide.
