Tom Curtis didn’t wait long for his first promotion at Burger King.
The longtime Domino’s executive who was named Burger King’s chief operating officer in April on Monday was named president of the burger chain in the U.S. and Canada.
He replaces Chris Finazzo, who stepped down as head of the chain in July. “Tom joined us a few months ago and has quickly established a strong leadership position in the business and trust with our franchisees,” José Cil, CEO of Burger King parent company Restaurant Brands International, said in a statement.
“Tom will lead the acceleration of our business to deliver on our vision that Burger King should always be our guests’ first choice for a quality meal, an exceptional and convenient experience and great value.”
Burger King has fallen behind its biggest industry competitors, including McDonald’s, Wendy’s and Jack in the Box, each of which reported double-digit two-year same-store sales growth in the U.S. last quarter. The Miami-based Burger King, by contrast, was up about 2%.
The result led Cil to declare that “We’re not performing at the level we expect of ourselves or aspire to” on the company’s second-quarter earnings call.
Curtis was initially tabbed to oversee the brand on an interim basis along with Chief Marketing Officer Ellie Doty.
Curtis had spent nearly 15 years with Domino’s, most recently as EVP of U.S. operations and support, before he was lured to take an operations position with Burger King, which operates just more than 7,000 locations in the U.S. It operates nearly 19,000 global locations.
In a statement, he said the company would work with its franchisees “to accelerate the performance of the Burger King brand through an intense focus on our guest experience and success on five key priorities.”
“We intend to play to our distinctive heritage and strengths, evolve our menu to deliver exceptional taste and value in key dayparts, streamline our operations to provide our guests with a consistent, quality experience, accelerate our digital integration, led by the nationwide launch of our Royal Perks loyalty program, and drive the transformation of our restaurant network with high quality locations, exciting design, and high ROI for our franchisees,” Curtis said.
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