The exec who saved Domino's Pizza is staking $30 million to revive the Whopper

Patrick Doyle saved iconic Domino's Pizza (DPZ) from an ice-cold ruin, and now he is back at it to save another icon of the fast food wars: Burger King and its meaty flame-grilled Whopper.

Doyle, who joined Burger King owner Restaurant Brands (QSR) in mid-November 2022 as executive chairman, told Yahoo Finance that he has $30 million of his own money on the line tied up over five years in an attempt at a successful reboot of the Burger King brand.

"I really believe in the opportunity here — it's an amazing business," Doyle said on Yahoo Finance Live (video above). "We have got the best burger in the category [in the Whopper] and that's a lot to work with. We've got work to do on our assets, we've got work to do on our speed of service... we've got to improve the franchisee profitability and the cash-on-cash returns of building these restaurants. But we've got the Whopper. And the Whopper is the best burger in the category. It's terrific. It's iconic."

Doyle is bringing one hell of a track record to Restaurant Brands.

As CEO of Domino's Pizza from 2010 to 2018, Doyle doubled down on ingredient quality and a more focused menu. He even took a crack at reinventing the Domino's delivery car.

In turn, Domino's stock exploded from $12 when he started to about $270 on his way out.

Restaurant Brands' most recent results shed light on the work Doyle will have to do on BK and the company's other brands alongside incoming CEO Josh Kobza, who will replace current CEO José Cil in March.

Burger King U.S. same-store sales rose 5.3% in the fourth quarter, lagging the 10.3% gain seen over at rival McDonald's (MCD). Profitability for the "Home of the Whopper" also continued to be under pressure in 2022 as franchisees battled tougher competition with restaurants that in some cases were in bad need of reinvestment.

Doyle says it's important that the company revives the Whopper and improves operations so franchisees see the results and then reinvest in things like digital menu boards and drive-thru technology.

"That's part of the reclaim the flame program," Doyle explained. "Some of [the restaurants], we do need to start from scratch. And we like what we are getting back from the franchisees on understanding [that for] some of them, we do need to scrape and rebuild, and that gets us the highest lift on sales."

On the plus side, Restaurant Brands has seen improvement in its other brands. Same-store sales in the fourth quarter for Tim Horton's rose 12.3% globally and advanced 11.2% at Popeyes. Firehouse Subs same-store sales improved by 3.9%.

But some on Wall Street are taking a wait-and-see approach to Doyle's well-honed playbook.

"While we appreciate the transparency in addressing the most important investor concern of franchisee profitability and RBI's focus on improving the strength of its franchisee base, we emerge from the call more cautious around the timing of the turnaround," Bernstein analyst Danilo Gargiulo wrote in a client note.

Brian Sozzi is an editor-at-large and anchor at Yahoo Finance. Follow Sozzi on Twitter @BrianSozzi and on LinkedIn.

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