This is part of Nation’s Restaurant News’ annual Top 100 report, a proprietary census ranking the foodservice industry’s largest restaurant chains and companies by sales and unit data, among other metrics.
Lower average U.S. unit growth among Top 100 chains — 3.3 percent in the Latest Year, down from 3.7 percent in the Preceding Year — resulted in a gain of 3,986 units in the Latest Year, compared with the Preceding Year’s 4,437-unit increase. A similar number of chains added units in both years, and among those expanding in the Latest Year the average increase was 4.9 percent, compared with an average increase of 5.6 percent a year earlier. The average decline among chains posting lower unit counts was 1.8 percent and 2 percent in the Latest and Preceding Years, respectively.
