Restaurant Brands International (RBI) - Enterprise Tech Ecosystem Series

Restaurant Brands International (RBI) - Enterprise Tech Ecosystem Series

Summary

Restaurant Brands International Inc (RBI) is a quick-service restaurant (QSR) operator. The company holds, operates and franchises restaurants under Popeyes, Burger King, and Tim Hortons brand names. Its Tim Hortons restaurants offer premium tea, espresso-based hot and cold specialty drinks, wraps, and soups, blend coffee, classic sandwiches, grilled paninis. RBI also offers fresh baked goods including cookies, donuts, bagels, pastries, and muffins. RBI’s Popeyes restaurants offer fried shrimp, spicy chicken, and other seafood; rice, chicken tenders and red beans. Its Burger King restaurants provide chicken, specialty sandwiches, and flame-grilled hamburgers, soft drinks, and french fries. The company has expanded its operations mainly in Canada and the US.

In 2019, as part of the digital strategy, Burger King introduced a “Burger King of Tomorrow” store in the US. The restaurant is equipped with innovative technologies, dedicated mobile ordering, dual drive-thru for improving throughput and faster delivery, self-ordering kiosks, and outdoor digital media boards which can be further integrated with other technologies such as mobile apps. The company aims to develop a digitally integrated experience for its customers, improve throughput, and to deliver superior customer experience.

RBI has a functional team of researchers and engineers called RBI Tech based out of Miami and Toronto. The team is focusing on developing innovative products and solutions to deliver digital customer experience and to generate new ideas and test new solutions. It especially focuses on innovations that can help the company in offering better customer service and crew experience at restaurants.

This report provides insight into RBI's fintech activities, including its digital transformation strategies, its innovation programs, its technology initiatives, its estimated ICT budget, and its major ICT contracts.

To expand its customer base and accelerate sales growth, the company has introduced multiple reward programs.

• The company has introduced white label delivery program to enable customers to order food through the mobile app and gets delivery at a minimum cost from its selected partners.
• Royal Perks program: In 2021, Burger King started testing a rewards program by connecting with number of restaurants and deploying digital payments and rewards incentives for the customers. Users can order online and earn free food coupons or can upgrade orders for every dollar spent. Initially, the company has rolled out the program in New Jersey, Los Angeles, New York, Miami, and Long Island.
• In 2019, Tim Hortons introduced the loyalty program for Canadian customers. In 2020, It also introduced “Tims It Forward” program accessible through its mobile app and enables US and Canadian reward members to send digital gifts through redeeming reward points.

• As a part of its global growth strategy, RBI has been strengthening its digital expertise through technology experts and having a dedicated technology team. Its first step towards digital transformation was the appointment of its first CTO, Teddy Sherrill, in 2018 aimed at developing digital strategies, accelerating growth, and enhancing the customer experience through technology and innovation. The company also hired Kapil Grover as Chief Digital Officer, India in 2020, to manage its technology operations and accelerate growth. Additionally, the company established a digital tech team to drive digital transformation, expand and augment its online ordering platforms and to focus on transforming customer experience. RBI has further planned to build an experienced team with deep expertise to manage its business operations and to drive customer
experience through digital channels.
• RBI is working with franchise partners and app-based delivery platforms to enable digital delivery for its customers at their homes, workplaces, and beyond. For instance, the company has partnered with Zomato to provide online food delivery to its customers through the latter’s app. It has also teamed up with SkipTheDishes to enable its greater Toronto area customers to place orders online. Additionally, they have collaborated with food delivery platforms, DoorDash and Postmates for on-demand food delivery to its customers. This strategy is helping the company in maximizing its reorder rates and improving customer service and driving sales.
• RBI is focusing on modernizing its restaurants with drive-thru, self-ordering kiosks, new outdoor digital menu boards embedded with loyalty programs, contactless payments, and predictive capabilities to provide seamless and connected in-restaurant customer experience. The company has teamed up with STRATACACHE to provide software, hardware, and services to deploy 40,000+ digital menu boards at Burger King, Tim Hortons, and Popeyes locations across US and Canada and to monitor the operations of its digital screens. It plans to complete deployment in 2022.

• Gain insights into RBI's operations.
• Gain insights into its fintech strategies and innovation initiatives.
• Gain insights into its technology themes under focus.
• Gain insights into various product launches, partnerships, and acquisition strategies.