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The Facilities Buildout Behind RBIs 1,800 New Restaurants per Year by 2028
Restaurant Brands International plans to open 1,800 net new restaurants per year by 2028 across four brands with four distinct facilities profiles, a simultaneous refranchising program, and a capital structure that puts franchisees in the driver's seat for maintenance decisions.
Key Points
- Restaurant Brands International plans to open approximately 1,800 net new restaurants per year by 2028 across Burger King, Tim Hortons, Popeyes, and Firehouse Subs, with 300 to 400 annually in North America alone.
- Four brands means four distinct facilities profiles, each with different kitchen exhaust, fire suppression, grease management, and equipment requirements operating under one corporate umbrella.
- RBI is simultaneously refranchising hundreds of company-owned Burger King locations by end of 2027, transferring asset histories, deferred maintenance, and vendor relationships to franchisees who will make day-to-day facilities decisions.
Restaurant Brands International, the parent company of Burger King, Tim Hortons, Popeyes, and Firehouse Subs, held its 2026 Investor Day at its Miami headquarters on February 26 and outlined plans to open approximately 1,800 net new restaurants per year by 2028. The system already exceeds 33,000 restaurants in more than 120 countries with nearly $50 billion in annual systemwide sales.
In North America alone, RBI is targeting 300 to 400 net new restaurants annually, according to Chain Store Age. Firehouse Subs is expected to contribute approximately half. The remaining 150 to 200 will be roughly split between Tim Hortons and Popeyes, according to the company's Investor Day presentation.
Four brands, four facilities profiles: Each brand carries a distinct equipment suite, kitchen configuration, and maintenance profile. When a company announces 1,800 new restaurants, the number obscures the fact that the development pipeline is actually four parallel facilities programs operating under one corporate umbrella.
The refranchising transition: RBI is actively refranchising its Burger King U.S. company restaurant portfolio down to a base of approximately 300 to 500 home market restaurants by the end of 2027. That means hundreds of company-owned locations will transfer to franchisees over the next 18 months. Each location carries its own asset history, deferred maintenance profile, equipment age and warranty status, and established vendor relationships. The receiving franchisees will need to absorb those portfolios while maintaining brand standards, and many will be inheriting buildings that were maintained under a different philosophy, with different spend thresholds, than the one they practice.
In an interview with QSR Magazine, CFO Sami Siddiqui pointed to 18 consecutive quarters of positive same-store sales growth as the foundation for franchisee confidence in new development. He cited Burger King Japan, Korea, and India as fast-growing markets, and noted that Popeyes' roughly 300 stores in Asia Pacific compete against nearly 20,000 KFC locations, a gap that represents both an ambition and a facilities buildout of extraordinary scale across unfamiliar geographies.
The capital structure puts franchisees in the driver's seat for facilities decisions. RBI expects total capex and cash inducements of approximately $400 million in 2026 and 2027, stepping down to $300 million in 2028, according to the company's investor day presentation. That capital discipline means the company is betting on franchisee-funded growth, which means franchisees, not corporate, will be making day-to-day decisions about equipment procurement, vendor selection, repair-versus-replace timing, and maintenance investment levels. The consistency of facilities operations across more than 33,000 restaurants will depend on what tools and systems franchisees are given to work with.
The scale of RBI's ambition is clear. The gap between announcing 1,800 new restaurants a year and maintaining 1,800 new restaurants a year is where the operational reality lives, and that reality plays out one work order, one vendor dispatch, and one PM schedule at a time, across four brands and 120 countries.
