Burger King First-Quarter Earnings Fall 6.4% as U.S. Sales Drop

Burger King Holdings Inc., the second-largest U.S. hamburger seller, said first-quarter earnings declined 6.4 percent as sales in the U.S. and Latin America dropped.

Net income fell to $46.6 million, or 34 cents a share, from $49.8 million, or 36 cents, a year earlier, the Miami-based company said in a regulatory filing today. Sales declined 5.4 percent to $636.9 million in the three months ended Sept. 30.

Sales in the U.S. and Mexico have fallen even as Burger King offered deals including a $1 double cheeseburger to lure cash-strapped consumers. With unemployment rising, U.S. visits to fast-food chains declined 3 percent in the three months through August, and lunch and breakfast orders fell, according to NPD Group, a Port Washington, New York-based researcher.

Read Burger King's news release on Q1 F2010 results