BurgerFi Sees Delivery & Digital Sales Increase More Than 80% Year-Over-Year

BurgerFi International Inc. today is reporting financial results for the fourth quarter and full year ended December 31, 2020.

“2020 was a transformative year for BurgerFi,” said Julio Ramirez, CEO of BurgerFi.

Plan for More Drive-Thrus

The brand opened 11 new restaurants, including its first drive-thru location in Kentucky. The brand opened nine delivery-only ghost kitchens with REEF Technology and Epic Kitchens “to test out specific markets and build brand recognition,” said Ramirez.

In 2020 restaurants nationwide faced the realities of doing business during the COVID-19 pandemic,  increasingly leaning in to off-prem. Noodles & Co. is among the brands buoyed by a strong off-prem playbook.  

BurgerFi launched curbside service via digital channels integrated through its website for contactless service.

“As customer habits shifted during the pandemic, I am incredibly proud of our team’s adaptability and the strategic investments we made in our digital platforms to provide a better omnichannel customer experience,” said Ramirez. “These investments allowed us to recover same store sales sequentially since the start of the pandemic, while also growing our systemwide delivery and digital sales by over 64% for the year.”

So far this year, BurgerFi opened four new locations including an additional drive-thru location in Nevada in March and eight more restaurants are currently under construction. The chain plans to open approximately 30 locations in existing and new markets primarily throughout the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic regions in 2021.

BurgerFi continues to be focused on bolstering the customer experience and providing optimal order pickup options across all formats. This includes investments in digital capabilities and introducing more drive-thru locations in 2021  Its first location in Saudi Arabia will open later this year as part of a multi-unit agreement with Food Supplies Co.

The brand is postponing its conference call for the quarter and full year 2020 after the Division of Corporate Finance of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued a “Staff Statement on Accounting and Reporting Considerations for Warrants Issued by Special Purpose Acquisition Companies” or SPACs on April 12.  The call is being reschedule for May.

BurgerFi's 2020 earnings release is available here.