GENIUS BETWEEN THE BUNS
GENIUS BETWEEN THE BUNS Burgermeister was founded two decades ago in Berlin and has since grown into a globally renowned cult burger chain. René Haehnen, COO, reflects on how the German brand has achieved its legendary status Writer: Ed Budds | Project Manager: Presley Smith
T
he origin story of Burgermeister is not just a colourful anecdote – it captures something essential about the brand. Established in 2006 by Cebrail Karabelli, the company curiously started out from a repurposed public toilet tucked under a U-Bahn bridge at Schlesisches Tor in the Kreuzberg district of Berlin, Germany. Karabelli’s motto was simple – ‘If you want to do something best, you have to do it yourself’. He wanted a better burger than
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what was available in Berlin at the time, and he built it. “That ethos of quality without compromise has stayed with us as we have grown from one kiosk to our current network of locations across Germany,” introduces current COO, René Haehnen. “Our menu is deliberately focused – burgers, made well, at a price that is affordable to everyone. Our customer base reflects that, as our food is enjoyed by students, professionals, families, and tourists.”
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Today, the brand has a strong following in Berlin but is also expanding across the rest of Germany and beyond, one location at a time.
NAVIGATING THE INDUSTRY With more than 30 years of experience across the food, hospitality, and quick service industries, Haehnen brings deep operational expertise to Burgermeister, with a focus on strengthening processes, scalable structures, and operational excellence as the business continues to grow. “What has always driven me is the challenge of making complex systems work at scale, and the restaurant industry is one of the most demanding environments you can find for that,” Haehnen describes. “Burgermeister in particular sits at the intersection of food culture, real estate, technology, and logistics, and getting all of those pieces to work together consistently, across many locations and at high volume, is a difficult but genuinely exciting problem,” he highlights. Undoubtedly, this is an industry that is demanding in ways that are easy to underestimate from the outside. The market is mature enough that you cannot coast on novelty, but also dynamic enough that the brands willing to invest in technology and operational excellence are pulling away from those who are not. “What excites me most right now is how much technology can change the economics of running a restaurant well. “When I look at where Burgermeister was three or four years ago, the systems we were running on and the manual processes in the kitchen and at the point of sale (POS) – compared to where Burgermeister is today, it is a different business,” affirms Haehnen.
OPERATIONAL DISCIPLINE With the goal of serving the best burger at the best price, whilst 4 | EME Outlook Issue 73
keeping quality high but prices low, operational discipline is the key for Burgermeister. “A focused and slim menu gives us purchasing leverage and kitchen consistency. We are not trying to
do everything; instead, we focus on doing what we do very well,” Haehnen sets out. The bigger lever, one the company currently spends the most time on, is technology and team development.
HOW DOES BURGERMEISTER FOCUS ON CUSTOMER NEEDS, PREFERENCES, AND SATISFACTION? René Haehnen, COO: “Consistency is probably the most important word I would use here. “The Burgermeister customer is not looking for a different experience every time; they come back because the last experience was fantastic, and they want that again and again. “So, our focus on customer satisfaction starts with operational reliability and excellence: the right burger, prepared correctly, served fast, every time. “That is harder to achieve than it sounds when you are running at volume across multiple locations. Beyond that, delivery has become an increasingly important channel for us, and we take the ratings and feedback from delivery platforms seriously as live operational data. “If something is consistently flagged, we treat it as a process problem to fix. We also pay close attention to how menu preferences evolve, not by chasing every trend, but by understanding our core customer and making thoughtful adjustments.”
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“I want Burgermeister to be a brand that never loses sight of where it started, under a U-Bahn bridge in Berlin, whilst bringing that same spirit to more cities across Germany and Europe” – RENÉ HAEHNEN, COO, BURGERMEISTER
As Burgermeister has grown, its operational infrastructure has at times struggled to keep pace. POS systems were decades old,
manual processes in the kitchen created bottlenecks and waste, and inventory management relied on guesswork as much as data.
“Modernising all of that – migrating to a new POS system, digitising kitchen operations with screen-based order management, building delivery platform integrations that actually work – has given Burgermeister real efficiency gains,” notes Haehnen. Those gains translate directly into Burgermeister’s ability to hold prices down without squeezing quality. The technology transformation Burgermeister has been through over the past few years deserves an enormous amount of credit. EME Outlook Issue 73 | 5
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None of this is visible to the customer, but it is the foundation that makes everything else possible. “Burgermeister has also invested in internal training platforms that allow us to onboard and develop people across our growing network consistently. “That kind of investment in people infrastructure does not make headlines, but it is what differentiates the brands that scale well from those that do not,” Haehnen continues. Looking ahead, Burgermeister has laid the foundations of the natural 8 | EME Outlook Issue 73
“A focused and slim menu gives us purchasing leverage and kitchen consistency. We are not trying to do everything; instead, we focus on doing what we do very well” – RENÉ HAEHNEN, COO, BURGERMEISTER
next direction as the business matures into European markets.
STRATEGY FOR SUCCESS Finding and securing the right locations, at the right commercial
terms, in the right parts of a city, is as strategically important as the product itself. “The relationship between quickservice restaurant (QSR) operators and property owners and investors
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is complex, and I think the most successful expansions happen when there is a genuine alignment of interests rather than an adversarial negotiation,” acknowledges Haehnen. Burgermeister has worked hard to build credibility as a serious, long-term tenant across its German footprint, and that reputation matters as the company targets new markets. “The operational and technological investment we’ve made is also an
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argument we make to landlords. A Burgermeister that runs on modern infrastructure is a reliable tenant,” he continues. On a personal level, this expansion phase is one Haehnen feels wellplaced to lead having grown through the operational side of the business, possessing a clear view of where the strategic and commercial opportunities lie – in new markets, fresh formats, and how to build the brand.
EUROPEAN EXPANSION Maintaining quality and staying true to its brand roots is the central challenge of scaling, one that Haehnen thinks about constantly. The Burgermeister identity is not just a logo or a menu – it is rooted in a very specific story, place, and set of values regarding quality and authenticity. “As we open in Poland, Austria, or the UK, that story still needs to come through. What I have learnt is that the
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way to protect brand quality at scale is through operational systems and culture,” he expands. “The investment we have made in technology, training, and standardised processes is ultimately an investment in the brand. Karabelli’s founding instinct – ‘Do it yourself and do it right’ – must be embedded in every part of how we operate, not just the kitchen,” Haehnen asserts. Right now, the company’s focus is on executing its domestic expansion to the best of its ability, encompassing the development of new locations, completed to the Burgermeister
standard, with the operational infrastructure to support them. Alongside this, the business is excited to be meticulously establishing its first international markets across Poland, Austria, and others. “In the medium term, our focus is on continuing to grow across Germany whilst expanding selectively into neighbouring European markets. Entering the UK is another important step for us, and preparations are already underway,” Haehnen excites. Underpinning all of this is Burgermeister’s continued investment in technology and people.
The operational foundation the company has built is what makes growth realistic rather than reckless. “I want Burgermeister to be a brand that never loses sight of where it started, under a U-Bahn bridge in Berlin, whilst bringing that same spirit to more cities across Germany and Europe,” he concludes with pride.
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