Each week, NRN editor-in-chief Sarah Lockyer gives you her take on the top restaurant industry news.
Another week of heavy financial news dominates this week's most popular stories, with McDonald's becoming a return target for activists looking for change, Ruth's Hospitality Group selling its once very promising Mitchell's Fish Market brand and a look ahead at a continued fast pace of deals in 2015. As timing would have it, I just sat down with a prominent investment banker this week, and he confirms we'll see lots of action quickly next year.
While most of these deals are with sizeable chains, the money available for investing is still plentiful, and growth brands of all sizes are poised to take advantage — just look at Habit Burger's successful IPO today, and the continued rumors around 53-unit Shake Shack looking for its own debut on Wall Street.
But it wouldn't be the restaurant industry without food, and among our audience's most popular picks this week is a story covering the popularity of chicken wings — with consumer research placing the item above burgers and pizza. New flavors, customizable levels of sauces and affordable prices are spot on with today's food and customer trends.
Take a look at NRN’s top 10 most popular stories:
1. McDonald’s targets fast casual with customizable burger test
2. Ruth's to sell Mitchell’s Fish Markets at significant loss
3. Darden cuts jobs, restructures in effort to save $20M next year
4. Are restaurants paying attention to Gen X?
5. Activist investor takes a stake in McDonald’s
6. Experts: Restaurant deals to continue brisk pace into 2015
7. Survey: Takeout chicken wings more popular than pizza, burgers
8. Finance experts: Why did Ruth's sell Mitchell's for so little?
9. Logan's Roadhouse creates COO role to ‘drive business forward’
