The 15th Store of Berlin's Cult Burger Chain Opens in Braunschweig By the end of…

Burgermeister Starts Nationwide Expansion
By Christoph von Schwanenflug from issue IZ
Burgermeister has a large fan base. Now the Berlin burger chain is starting a major roll-out. “We will write the biggest success story in the catering industry in Europe since McDonald’s,” announces Executive Chairman Robert Fügert confidently.
You would think that after McDonald’s, Burger King, Hans im Glück, Burgerme and countless local and regional burger chains, the topic in Germany would slowly be exhausted. Far from it. A company from Berlin is making a snappy announcement. “We will write the biggest success story in the catering industry in Europe since McDonald’s,” says Robert Fügert, Executive Chairman of Burgermeister.
Back to the beginning. In 2006, restaurant owner Cebrail Karabelli opened a burger joint in a former toilet block on a central island beneath an elevated railway bridge on Schlesische Strasse in Berlin. The place was a success right from the start. But even though tourists and locals were queuing up, Karabelli was somehow not entirely satisfied. The quality of the buns and minced meat did not completely convince him. “At some point I had to take production into my own hands in order to be able to meet my quality standards,” he says. In-house production resulted in a larger branch network, which in turn required larger production, which in turn required a larger branch network. Burgermeister now bakes its own bread rolls on a 3,500 square meter area in Tempelhof and processes the beef, which is imported from Ireland, into minced meat. In April, Burgermeister opened its eleventh Berlin store on Schlossstrasse in a former McDonald’s branch, and the Gropius Passagen will follow soon, also as a successor to McDonald’s.
“I want to get to the point of signing two contracts a week”
Perhaps Karabelli would have been happy with Berlin if he hadn’t brought his friend Robert Fügert to his side. He emigrated to the USA in the 1990s and actually only wanted to come back for a few months as a consultant. He “fell in love with the product straight away,” says Fügert. With him on board, Burgermeister is in “hyper growth mode.” “I brought a lot of American thinking into the company.” Fügert commutes back and forth between his home in Florida and Berlin. In a few weeks, Burgermeister will open its first branches outside Berlin. Potsdam main station. Then two Hanover branches, one of which will be in the main station. Locations in Stuttgart, Leipzig, Düsseldorf, Bochum and Braunschweig are fixed. “I want to get to the point where we sign two contracts a week,” says Fügert.
Despite numerous contacts with brokers and daily “expansion meetings,” he still feels that progress is too slow overall. “Out of 100 exposés that we receive, one works.” In parallel with Germany, Burgermeister is taking on Europe. “We will be abroad in the next two years,” says Fügert. At the moment, Burgermeister is in the “lease agreement phase.” Then comes the “mergers and acquisitions phase.”
Burgermeister is a franchise system, but also has its own branches. The head office holds all rental contracts and sublets them to the franchise partners. Burgermeister is expanding with flagship stores measuring 250 to 500 square meters, which can also be two-story, the snack bar for transport locations, and the smallest format called pick-up, which offers no seating. The delivery business is of great importance. Own distribution stations for the delivery services are standard in new Burgermeister branches. If you believe Fügert, Uber Eats & Co. are fighting over a cooperation. “We have signed good contracts.” Fügert has also taken on the processes. “I’m already very good at the processes in the kitchen,” reports Karabelli, “but Robert got another 20% to 30% out of the technology.” Orders that come in via a delivery service pop up directly at the griller whose restaurant is responsible. Burgermeister is working on reducing the time between ordering and home delivery from 30 to 25 minutes.
Karabelli is responsible for ensuring that the quality of the products is not damaged during the expansion. In the tandem, he is the man for the product, the “burger engineer”. During the interview, he uses a toothpick to taste the minced meat that is currently being processed in the Burgermeister branch on Mehringdamm.
The company’s own production in Tempelhof is large enough to supply 75 to 100 branches in Germany, assures Karabelli. Production is his thing. He seems amazed at the dimensions to which his snack bar has already grown. Actually, he only wanted “something small” because the stress in the restaurant had become “too much” for him. Then he started production. And then Robert came along. Now he has a turnover of 53 million euros in 2023. “Somehow my plan didn’t quite work out.”