Burger King Products - Suppliers and Purchasing - Distributors

Distributors

For many years Burger King owned and operated its own distribution system, known originally as Distron. Distron, founded shortly after establishment of Burger King, primarily served the company-owned stores and 50–60 percent of franchised stores. Franchise groups were free to purchase supplies from one of seventeen independent distribution systems, often operated by larger franchise groups such as Carrols Restaurant Group. The Distron setup remained relatively stable until BK was purchased from Pillsbury by Grand Metropolitan. Grand Met originally planned to sell it after the purchase, but ended up reorganizing the division into two separate groups for procurement (Burger King Purchasing ) and distribution (Burger King Distribution Services ). The move resulted in the layoff of over a hundred staff members.

In 1992, Burger King and its franchises formed Restaurant Services Inc. (RSI), an independent purchasing cooperative, which covered 100 percent of BK stores in the United States. The creation of RSI was based on a proposal by then-CEO Barry Gibbons create an organization that would be autonomous from BK corporate operations, provide full financial disclosure to participants on pricing issues and revenues, and enjoy the participation of the entire chain to maximize the benefits of volume purchasing. The format of RSI was based on the system employed by KFC for its distribution system and was operated in a similar manner. Two weeks after the formation of the co-operative, Grand Met sold the physical assets of BKDS to Canadian-based buyout firm Onex Corporation and folded BKP into RSI.

Currently the company utilizes independent distributors such as Maines Paper and Food Service and Sysco for supplying North American stores with food and paper products.