This is part of Nation’s Restaurant News’ annual Second 100 report, a proprietary census ranking restaurant brands Nos. 101-200 by U.S. systemwide sales and other data. This special report focuses on a smaller, more growth-oriented universe than the Top 100 report.
Second 100 chains saw their aggregate U.S. unit count decrease by 1.2 percent in both the Latest and Preceding Years, ending the Latest Year with 20,491 total locations. The chains’ average rate of growth in U.S. restaurants slowed to 2.8 percent in the Latest Year from 3.5 percent a year earlier. The group’s performance was heavily impacted by the two worst performers — Sbarro and Quiznos, which lost 219 and 434 U.S. units, respectively, in the Latest Year. Without those chains’ results factored in, the Latest-Year aggregate unit count would have grown by 2.2 percent.
