20 Million Whoppers a Year: How GPS Hospitality Runs 400 Burger Kings Hour by Hour

GPS Hospitality sells somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 million Whoppers a year, and VP of Operations Support Gary Thomas can walk you through the math: 400 guests a day per store, almost 60 million guests a year, a third of them ordering a Whopper. On this episode of Behind the Numbers, Thomas explains how one of the nation's largest Burger King franchisees grew from 42 restaurants in 2012 to just under 400 Burger Kings and 16 Popeyes with about 10,000 employees.

Thomas gets into the philosophy of winning or losing every hour, with labor forecast down to 15-minute increments, and the rollout that put Restaurant365 in 380 stores in a single month. He also covers five straight quarters of positive comp sales driven by returning customers, a Whopper patty that has climbed from the 80-cent range to over a dollar as beef hits an all-time high, and why AI in the drive-thru should coach rather than police.

Hosted by Marc Cohen and Rich Sweeney. Find Gary Thomas on LinkedIn and GPS Hospitality at gpshospitality.com. Listen and subscribe on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or watch on YouTube.