(Reuters) -Restaurant Brands International Inc beat quarterly revenue estimates on Friday, as a reopening U.S. economy and government stimulus checks boosted spending at the company’s Burger King chain.
After a year of ordering in, more Americans have started to go back to restaurants as a $1,400 stimulus payment from the government in March boosted spending, while the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines lifted consumer confidence.
Total revenue rose to $1.26 billion in the first quarter ended March 31, from $1.23 billion a year earlier, and was above analysts’ average estimate of $1.25 billion, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.
However, same-store sales at the company’s Popeyes restaurant chain rose just 1.5% in the quarter, missing expectations of 1.7% growth. The Cajun-inspired fast-food chicken chain struggled to repeat last year’s explosive growth when its social-media favorite chicken sandwich was still fresh in the minds of Americans.
(Reporting by Uday Sampath in Bengaluru;Editing by Vinay Dwivedi)
