By Vanessa Yurkevich, CNN
New York (CNN) — Burger King, home of the Whopper, is making the first changes to its best-selling menu item in nearly 10 years after consumers complained.
The Whopper will replace its soft bun with a more premium one, use a new creamier mayonnaise and be served in a box instead of paper, the company announced Thursday. The revamped burger rolls out in its more than 7,000 restaurants nationwide this week.
The changes come after years of complaints about smashed burgers that were falling apart.
“So the Whopper being smushed, literally, I’ve heard it… and we’ve seen it,” Tom Curtis, president of Burger King US and Canada, told CNN. “(We) improved packaging that kind of holds it together. The creamier mayonnaise frankly just came from some franchisees who said they wanted to see a more premium mayonnaise. And then also upgrading and premium-izing the bun.”
Curtis, who started taking calls directly from customers last week, said the restaurant chain was “careful” with its changes. The beef patty, for example, remains the same.
“You don’t want to just tear up the playbook and start all over,” Curtis said. “It’s like we’re putting our famous iconic burger in a tuxedo instead of a leisure suit.”
The “enhanced” Whopper will cost Burger King franchisees an extra $4,000 a year. Burger King advised local owners not to raise prices for inflation-weary consumers and suggested the investment will drive up sales.
“It’s very tricky” for franchisees, said Robert Byrne, senior director of consumer research at Technomic, a forecasting and data company for the food service industry. “(Franchisees might say that) cost of labor hasn’t gotten any cheaper, ‘so why are you asking me to spend more over here?’ Well, to improve your business, but that’s a struggle.”
Why now?
Burger King is the eighth largest fast-food chain in the country by sales, according to Technomic.
But it lost its way with customers around 2023, Byrne said, with customers complaining about out-of-date stores, cold food and an overall lackluster experience.
The company had to tackle those foundational problems before updating the menu, Curtis said. Now sales are finally on the upswing – US same-store sales rose 3.2% in the most recent quarter. But menu changes could backfire among brand loyalists and potentially threaten sales.
“In an environment where you have economic uncertainty, inflationary pressures, just making ends meet is tough. There’s an additional element of risk when you purchase something that you’re not familiar with. That’s a high risk (for a brand),” said Byrne.
But Burger King believes the Whopper changes are subtle enough not to offend fanatics, while luring back customers who may have soured on the brand.
“‘I love a Whopper. I haven’t had one in years’ – I hear that at airports all the time,” said Curtis of talking to customers on the road. “I’m like, ‘What are you waiting for?’ And now I think we’re giving them a great reason to go back.”
Inside the test kitchen
For seven months, Burger King tested mayonnaise, burger buns and packaging.
No idea was discarded in the test kitchen, which even toyed with placing the burger upside down. That meant the beef patty is the first layer, with the veggies underneath.
Building the burger upside down was “actually distracting from the objective,” said Amy Alarcon, Burger King’s head chef who joined the company in January. “Let’s just build it the way it’s meant to be done.”
Redesigning for a national brand is a big undertaking. For the bread, Alarcon had to get ne