Popeyes and its chicken sandwich boost sales for Restaurant Brands InternationalPopeyes and its chicken sandwich boost sales for Restaurant Brands International

Popeyes used to be a lower profile brand for Restaurant Brands International, at least compared to Burger King. Not anymore. 

"This has been a very exciting time for the Popeyes team, and in fact, has been an exciting time for all of us who've spent a long time in QSR and have never seen the kind of guest response for a single product launch like the one we had for our Popeyes Chicken Sandwich," said Jose Cil, CEO of Toronto-based RBI, during the company's fourth-quarter earnings call.

During the quarter, the brand saw 42.3% system-wide sales growth and 34.4% in comparable-store sales growth. Sister brand Burger King did well, too, with 8.4% system-wide sales growth and 2.8% comp sales growth. It was coffee brand Tim Hortons that dragged t...