Although 2023 was a fantastic year for restaurant growth — with U.S. restaurant sales in the Technomic Top 500 increasing by 7.8% with the highest rate of unit growth in seven years — not every brand was a winner.
For the restaurant companies in the Top 500 that closed the most units in 2023, two themes were evident: mismanagement under new or stagnant ownership and echoes of COVID-19-centric challenges. While an ownership mismatch is nothing new to the restaurant industry, it might be surprising to hear that restaurant concepts are still buckling under the pressure of a brave new world post-pandemic.
The restaurant with the demerit of having closed the most restaurants in 2023 had a shocking 67.5%-unit decline. Most of the rest of the bottom 10 restaurants ranked by unit growth were concepts that were trendy or popular years ago, with Technomic unveiling a mix of casual-dining, bakery café chains, and sandwich concepts in that bottom ranking.
Click through the gallery to see the four restaurants that closed the most units in 2023.
All data courtesy Technomic Ignite Company data. Looking for more data? Click here to access the complete Technomic Top 500.
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