Restaurant Brands International Inc. (TSX:QSR)(NYSE:QSR) is the name of the company that now owns both Tim Hortons and Burger King. Investors became acquainted with the company last year, but haven’t really delved into the potential of the company yet as the company spent the majority of 2015 working on getting operations leaner and reducing some of the company’s massive debt from the merger.
Now that 2016 is here, the company is ready to grow and a great opportunity for investors.
This year is all about growth
In the latter part of 2015 the combined company started to report on growth figures, and those figures had started to edge upwards. This is likely to continue during the year.
Tim Hortons has set a target of international expansion and is likely to follow the model that Burger King has laid out; Tim Hortons has been largely successful in the past few years.
In the most recent quarter 69 new Tim Hortons restaurants and 141 Burger King locations were opened. Tim Hortons announced an expansion plan toward the end of 2015 that involved opening an additional 150 franchised locations in the Cincinnati, Ohio area within the next 10 years.
Burger King is also looking at international expansion; partnerships in India, Morocco, France, and the Ivory Coast will expand the company’s footprint over the next year beyond the more than 13,000 locations in 100 countries that the brand already operates in.
Internally, there is growth within each of the brands. Both Burger King and Tim Hortons have revamped menus. In the case of Tim Hortons, it’s moving beyond coffee and donuts into the realm of breakfast and lunch items. Burger King is moving into a more premium offering of sandwiches beyond the typical burger and fries offerings.
You’re in good company
If all of the above are not reasons to jump in and buy some of Restaurant Brands’s stock, then perhaps you might consider some of the shareholders the company currently has and their specific knack for identifying opportunities long before they are considered a great buy by the market.
Both Warren Buffett and Bill Ackman are both invested into the company. Buffett owns over $300 million in common and has 38 million preferred shares. Ackman also has a considerable number of shares–approximately 38 million common shares.
Restaurant Brands International currently trades at $46.04 and is down by 11% for the year, much like most of the market.
