page_title: List of countries with Burger King franchises
section_title: Europe/Caucasus
hierarchical_section_title: List of countries with Burger King franchises / Europe/Caucasus
caption_attribution_description: English: BK map
context_page_description: This is a list of countries with Burger King franchises. Burger King itself began as a franchise of its progenitor company, Insta-Burger King. It grew in the United States using a combination of corporate locations and franchising, before divesting itself of its corporate holdings in 2013. It began its international expansion in 1969 with a location in Canada, followed by Australia in 1971, and Europe in 1975. Latin America and South America became part of its market later in that decade, Asia followed in the 1980s, and Northern Africa and the Middle East followed shortly thereafter. Sub-Saharan Africa and the former nations of the Iron Curtain came much later, beginning in the late 1990s and continuing into the 2010s.
  As of 2014, Burger King operates in almost every country in the Western Hemisphere, and most of Europe and East Asia. It has embarked on a plan to base a good portion of its future growth in the BRIC Nations of Brazil, Russia, India, and China, with plans to open more than 3000 locations in three of those four countries. Burger King also has a longstanding presence at U.S. Army and U.S.
context_section_description: Burger King began its expansion in Europe in 1975 with its first location in Madrid, Spain. In 1976, they opened on the Kurfürstendamm in former West Berlin, the first German Burger King branch opened its doors. Four years later in Darmstadt, Hesse, the first franchise, was opened by former football player Lothar Skala. In 1990, the first time a Burger King outlet in the neue Bundesländer (former Länder of the GDR, which were incorporated after German reunification in the Federal Republic of Germany) opened in Dresden, then still in mobile form.
  In December 2012, Burger King returned to the French market, with an agreement with multinational operator Autogrill, a move that has met with some excitement in the country. In July 1997, it was announced the chain would be leaving the country, closing its 22 franchised and 17 corporate locations, after a poorly executed entry into the market that left it unable to compete against McDonald's and local chain Quick. The partnership with Autogrill is a move to consolidate Burger King's presence in travel plazas along major highways in France, Italy, Poland and other European nations.
  In November 2013, Groupe Bertrand, who owns several restaurant franchises, acquired the Burger King master franchise Autogrill, becoming one of their franchisees. In September 2015, Groupe Bertrand announced being in talks with Quick's owner, investment fund Qualium, to take over all the franchise and convert all Quick restaurants in France into Burger Kings.
  In December 2013, Burger King returned to Finland, after three decades of absence. The first restaurant, located on Mannerheimintie in central Helsinki, instantly proved so popular that on every day since its opening, people queued in front of the restaurant to get in, sometimes for over half an hour. The only exception so far has been Christmas time, when the restaurant was closed. According to Mikko Molberg, the leader of the Finnish Burger King franchise, the restaurant has attracted over 2000 customers on every single day, which has surprised the restaurant employees and the franchise owners. The long queues have been extensively covered and ridiculed in social media, comparing them to people queuing in front of a McDonald's restaurant in Moscow, Russia in the early 1990s, and contrasting them with the nearly nonexistent queues at Burger King restaurants in Stockholm, Sweden.
  In 2018, Burger King expanded into Azerbaijan, Greece and Kosovo, as well as re-entering the Slovakian market after nearly a 7-year absence. In June 2019, Burger King opened its doors in Albania after 7 months of hype in the QTU Shopping Mall.
  In 2020, the first 3 Burger King restaurants opened in Estonia. These were opened during the COVID-19 pandemic, and therefore had to be opened by Tallink by the popular videoconferencing software program Zoom.
caption: Map of countries in Europe and the Caucasus with Burger King locations
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