This week on NRN.com, the top story was 100 Under 100: Emerging restaurant chains that are thriving in the U.S.This year’s Technomic Top 500 results were a mixed bag for the restaurant industry. On one hand, many large restaurant brands stagnated in 2023, with sales increases merely a reflection of menu price increases and with a full third of brands experiencing a net unit count decrease.
In other news, it’s been a tough year across the board for restaurant traffic as consumers tighten their spending in favor of cooking at home. Despite a wildly successful run these last few years, McDonald’s hasn’t been immune to the current environment. In February, CEO Chris Kempczinski said the company was experiencing transaction reductions from those making $45,000 and below – an overindexing demographic for the chain. Executives cautioned that those headwinds were expected to continue through the duration of 2024 and that seems to be the case so far based on new data from analytics firm Placer.ai.
Also, MOD Pizza, one of the once-growing group of fast-casual pizza concepts, has agreed sell to Elite Restaurant Group, the companies announced Wednesday.
Bellevue, Wash.-based MOD Super Fast Pizza Holdings LLC said Chatsworth, Calif.-based Elite Restaurant Group had acquired 100% MOD’s equity in a merger agreement between the company and an Elite affiliate, a press release said. Terms were not disclosed.
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