Quick → Burger King : la conversion industrielle la plus rapide d’Europe

When the Bertrand Restauration group acquired Quick in 2015, it inherited 355 Quick restaurants in France. Rather than maintaining the two brands in parallel, Bertrand decided to methodically convert the Quick park into Burger King. The process took place over four years and constitutes probably the fastest multi-brand park industrial conversion in Europe.

The strategic logic

Three reasons motivated Bertrand’s decision:

1. Brand equity — Burger King returned to France in 2013 with a massive media effect. “The King” is measurable in spontaneous recognition, consumer anticipation, and latent demand. Quick, conversely, suffered from an aging image.

2. Economies of scale — Maintaining two brands implies two supply chains, two marketing, and two training. Bertrand centralized everything during the conversion.

3. Real estate opportunity effect — Quick restaurants often occupy premium locations (shopping centers, city centers, highway exits). Converting avoids Burger King from seeking new locations and accelerates its rollout of 5-7 years.

The conversion process

Converting a Quick into a Burger King is not a simple cosmetic renovation. It involves:

• Complete restaurant refit: façade, signage, interior, furniture
• Kitchen replacement: Quick used grates, Burger King uses flame broilers
• Team reformation: new menu, new process, new brand culture
• Back-office adaptation: new supply chain, new suppliers, new PMS

Estimated average cost: 400 to 700 k€ per restaurant. For 350 conversions, the total investment amounts to hundreds of millions of euros over 4 years.

The real timeline

According to Bertrand’s public communications and observed openings:

• 2016: ~80 conversions
• 2017: ~120 conversions
• 2018: ~100 conversions
• 2019-2020: ~50 conversions

Thus, ~350 Quick restaurants were reconverted into Burger King over 4 years, at an average rate of 7-10 conversions per month. This pace is without equivalent in Europe for a multi-brand conversion project.

The impact on the market

The Quick → Burger King conversion had several sectoral effects:

1. Drastic acceleration of BK penetration — without this operation, Burger King would probably have reached 500 restaurants by 2025-2027 instead of 2022.

2. Disappearance of the European alternative — French consumers seeking an alternative to McDonald’s now have Burger King (American chain) as their main choice, where Quick offered a European identity distinct.

3. Concentration of the burger market — McDonald’s + Burger King now represent more than 80% of the French burger market. KFC follows (chicken), then smaller or newer players (Five Guys, Steak’n Shake, Eat Smash).

The lesson for the industry

This operation illustrates an operational execution capacity that few restaurant groups possess. The Bertrand group, by managing simultaneously:

• The acquisition of Quick (administrative integration)
• The Burger King France master-franchising (organic growth)
• The conversion of the Quick → BK park (heavy transformation)
• The development of new Burger King greenfield

demonstrated a rare operational leadership capacity. This is probably the factor that explains the success of BK penetration in France since 2013 — much more than the intrinsic quality of the Whopper.

For more information

• History of Quick: from European leader to near-disappearance
• History of Burger King in France
• The Burger King franchise model