Restaurant Brands International (QSR) – Checks From the Gateway Arch

BMO Capital was out earlier this week with a note after visiting a handful of Burger Kings in the St. Louis area (urban and suburban) to observe the launch of the Impossible Whopper. During their visits, analyst Peter Sklar said he found the restaurant staff unusually excited about this product and its potential impact on unit sales.

Based on their observation of the menu board, customer traffic, and discussions they held within the restaurants, BMO estimates that Burger King is selling on average at least 100 Impossible Whoppers per day at each of its test restaurants.

“We believe the large majority of Impossible Whopper sales is through the cannibalization of existing sales for items such as the original beef Whopper or veggie burger. However, the Impossible Whopper is priced at $1.00 more than the original Whopper and has not been part of any discount promotion, and, therefore, is driving average ticket higher.”

Based on these findings, BMO is now estimating that the addition of the Impossible Whopper could be significantly more positive than they had initially thought and potentially could add about 450 basis points to same-restaurant-sales.

All of this commentary was backed by a recent inMarket report saying that traffic, due to this burger, in the St. Louis market increased by 18.5% in April, while traffic was down 1.8% at Burger King’s across the United States without this plant-based burger.

JaguarScan

Finally, for those that have access to our JaguarScan will notice that QSR is currently running a 99% bullish bias with a heavy amount of buying in the July 65 Calls. Here is a quick breakdown: