Burger King to buy Belgian-based burger chain Quick Group
29 Sep 2015
US fast-food company Burger King is set to become the second-biggest fast-food chain in France behind McDonald's Corp by striking a deal to buy Belgian-based Quick Group, for an undisclosed sum.
Groupe Bertrand, the family group led by founder Olivier Bertrand and the majority shareholder of Burger King France, will buy Quick Group - the owner of the Quick fast food hamburger chain, from private-equity firm Qualium Investissement.
Antwerp, Belgium-based Quick was founded in 1967 and currently operates 509 restaurants in France, Belgium, Luxemburg, La Réunion, New Caledonia and Martinique.
Quick's hamburger restaurant operations are similar to that of McDonald's and Burger King and served 200 million customers last year and generated sales of €1 billion.
All Quick restaurants in France will be converted to the Burger King brand, while those outside will continue with the Quick brand.
The deal will add 509 restaurants to Burger King's 26 French outlets, but is still a long way from the 1,354 restaurants operated by McDonald's in France.
The deal would see a revival of Burger King in France, which exited the country in 1997, selling a most of its restaurants to Quick. It re-entered France only in 2013.
Burger King has more than 19,000 restaurants in around 100 countries and generates annual sales of $23billion.
