With the recent agreement, Tallink Grupp, which launched the first floating Burger King restaurant in 2016, has now additionally acquired the chain’s exclusive development rights for the Baltic countries. The company will open iconic Burger King restaurants in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in the coming years and, according to the agreement, the term of each licence for the restaurants opened will be for 20 years. The first restaurants in Estonia are anticipated to open this winter. 

”The best known product of the Burger King brand is the iconic WHOPPER® sandwich, which has been the essence of a true American-style burger across the world in the last 60 years, “ Paavo Nõgene, CEO of Tallink Grupp said.  ”Tallink made history already in 2016 when we  brought the chain’s first restaurants on board ships and now we are making history again, bringing the WHOPPER® sandwich as well as the rest of the popular Burger King products onshore to the people of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.“ 

“We are excited to develop beautiful new Burger King restaurants and introduce guests in the Baltics to our iconic brand featuring our great-tasting food with Tallink Grupp” said David Shear, President, Burger King and Popeyes EMEA. “We are confident that guests will enjoy our world-famous flame-grilled flavor, including our iconic WHOPPER® sandwich, and experience our brand their way through personalized digital innovation.”

According to the development agreement the term of each licence for the restaurants opened will be for 20 years. The company plans to open its first Burger King restaurants in Tallinn this winter and the first restaurants in Latvia and Lithuania in the first half of 2020.  Tallink Grupp expects the expansion to create a total of nearly 800 new jobs in the Baltic states.

”We have taken a number of steps to expand the activities of Tallink Grupp onshore as well as on the sea and the acquisition of the Burger King franchise across the Baltics is another important step forward with our onshore expansion plans.  Our cooperation with Burger King on the sea has been very successful and smooth, Burger King restaurants are extremely popular with our customers and we are certain that a well-known and renowned restaurant chain like Burger King is exactly what consumers are looking for in the fast food world of the Baltic states. I am pleased that with the franchise acquisition we can not only offer our customers the iconic tastes of Burger King, but we are also contributing significantly to the economies of the Baltic states by creating hundreds of new jobs.  Tallink will continue to seek expansion opportunities onshore and on the sea, both in the Baltic Sea region as well as further afield,“ Nõgene added.