FROM OUR COLUMNISTS
IN THE FAST-FOOD WORLD, GROWTH IS COMING FROM DRINKS AND DES S ERTS
The Bottom Line: The highest-growth quick-service chains cannot be found in traditional sectors but among coffee, beverage and dessert brands. What does this say about the restaurant industry?
BY JONATHAN MAZE
W hen looking for growth in the fast-food sector, don’t look at the center of the plate. Amid what has been an anemic year for the industry as a whole and quick-service restaurants in particular, there are two general menu items that appear to be doing just fine: Drinks and desserts. We examined the quick-service restau- rants on the Technomic Top 1500 restaurant chains. There are 512 such chains on that particular list, and total sales among that group grew just 2.29%, suggesting seriously weak traffic after accounting for menu prices and unit count growth. Nearly half of those brands, 212 in total, lost sales last year. In short, it was not a great year for the business of fast food. And even that might not quite tell the full story. There were 37 fast-food chains that grew system sales by 25% or more, making them legitimate growth brands. Of those, only 11 brands—Shah’s Halal Food, Playa Bowls, Smalls Sliders, Savvy Slid- ers, Angry Chickz, Wing Snob, bb.q Chicken, Snarf’s Sandwiches, West Coast Sourdough and Sourdough & Co.—are center-of-plate brands specializing in chicken, burgers, sand- wiches or “other.” In other words, of the 512 fast-food res- taurant chains, only 10 of them, about 2%, are center-of-plate growth brands.
WHERE IS THE GROWTH COMING FROM? To be sure, we need to again point out that there are plenty of center-of-plate growth brands in the fast-casual sector, many of which could undoubtedly be considered quick-service chains with a modest tweak in definition. But that simply helps explain the state of the res - taurant industry right now. All the development is taking place among higher-end brands with larger check averages and not theoretically lower-priced fast-food brands.
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RESTAURANT BUSINESS JANUARY 2026
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