October 26, 2021: On Monday, Restaurant Brands International reported quarterly earnings that topped Wall Street’s expectations, but its revenue decreased short as labor challenges weighed on sales. Shares of the company increased below 1% in premarket trading. The Burger King parent-reported fiscal third-quarter net income attributable to common shareholders of $221 million, or 70 cents per share, starting from $145 million, or 47 cents for each share, a year earlier.

Excluding items, Restaurant Brands earned 76 cents for each share, beating the 74 cents for each share expected by analysts surveyed by Refinitiv.

Net sales rose 11.8% to $1.5 billion, which falls short of expectations of $1.52 billion. Restaurant Brands said Covid-19 contributed to labor challenges that led restaurants in a few regions to shorten their hours or reduce service modes. Staffing shortages have been an industry-wide problem, leading some restaurant companies to temporarily close their dining rooms or turn digital ordering for specific locations.

Tim Hortons reported same-store sales growth of 8.9%, below StreetAccount estimates of 10.3%. Before Pandemic, the chain struggled to attract customers, pushing the company to invest more in its coffee and restaurant equipment. The slower recovery of Canada from Covid-19 has weighed on Tims’ same-store sales growth this year.

Burger King’s same-store sales increased 7.9% after decreasing 7% a year ago. The burger chain missed StreetAccount’s estimates of 8.6%. U.S. same-store sales shrank by 1.6%. Sales in the home market of the company have been trailing those of other burger chains, which include rival McDonald’s, expected to report its results in this week.

Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen saw its same-store sales decrease by 2.4% in the quarter, and StreetAccount’s estimates predicted the metric would rise by that amount. The fried chicken chain faced tough comparisons to its performance a year ago when same-store sales climbed 17.4%.