The BurgerFi Success Story

The BurgerFi Success Story

BurgerFi’s impressive expansion:

As BurgerFi celebrates their 8th anniversary, they continue to outperform key fast casual competitors and garner industry accolades. By embracing technological innovation and staying on top of healthy eating trends, the Florida-based chain is poised to reach even greater heights in the coming years.

This young but dynamic company’s 2018 results rank at the top of the industry:

  • Same-store sales up by nearly 6%

  • Total year-over-year revenue up by nearly 30%

  • Sold 3MM more burgers in 2018

  • 55 New Stores in Development

  • Gave back to the communities in which we serve including $154,000 raised for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

Currently there are 109 stores in the chain, with another 20-25 restaurants planned in 2019. We added non-traditional unit development partners including HMS Host, Aramark, and SSP America. These impressive gains helped BurgerFi earn the top spot in Franchise Times’ list of fastest-growing “better burgers” franchises of 2018, and the #20 spot on Fast Casual’s 2018 “Top 100 Movers & Shakers” list.

Favorite Heinz Product:

Chef Paul Griffin, BurgerFi’s Director of Culinary and R&D, favors the HFCS-free ketchup.

How BurgerFi adapts to new trends such as online ordering and technology

Another significant factor in BurgerFi’s success is its total commitment to technology to improve both customer satisfaction and operational efficiency. One example is BurgerFi’s facial recognition kiosks being utilized at several stores, which streamlines orders for returning customers.

The advantages of facial recognition center on the way it boosts speed of service and personalizes the guest experience. Who doesn’t love the convenience of walking into their favorite restaurant, where they’re recognized immediately and asked if they want the usual? Facial recognition gives you that experience after just one visit. This level of personalization gives two gifts to guests: control and time.

How does facial recognition at BurgerFi work? Place a new order. At the end, you'll be asked if you want the kiosk to remember your order by phone, by facial recognition, or by credit card. Choose facial recognition, and a popup will prompt you to opt-in. Tap yes, and the kiosk camera will turn on and capture your facial geometry. The next time you visit, at the start of ordering you can choose to pull up a previous order with facial recognition, and you can then reorder a favorite with just a tap. In sum: use the kiosk once, opt into facial recognition, and the next time you visit you can reorder and pay for your favorite dish in less than 10 seconds.

BurgerFi doesn’t store images of guests' faces - instead, they store their facial geometry expressly for the purpose of looking up previous orders. And they only capture that facial geometry once guests have given their consent to opt-in to facial recognition.


Other technologies employed at BurgerFi include:

· Touch-screen ordering at most locations

· Cloud-based technology platforms that help franchisees manage all aspects of their business

· Proprietary back-of-house technology reduced burger cooking time from 4:30 minutes to just :57 seconds

Other news from BurgerFi:

BurgerFi’s menu has always reflected the growing popularity of healthier, more natural dining. Items such as their meat-free alternatives –the vegan Beyond Burger and VegeFi – cater to a variety of current dietary preferences. It’s worth noting that since its inception, the company has proudly offered 100% natural Angus beef patties with no steroids, antibiotics, growth hormones, chemicals or additives. This led to BurgerFi recently being awarded an “A” rating on the fourth annual Chain Reaction scorecard, as the only franchise burger chain in the industry to serve beef raised without the routine use of antibiotics.

In other news, BurgerFi locations are rolling out paper cups, paper straws and new paper packaging in the next few months.

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