Jan-Hinrik Bauwe’s Post

Restaurant Apocalypse Accelerates As America’s Biggest Chains Go Bankrupt July 9, 2024 8:16 pm by CWR Burger King. Wendy’s. Boston Market. Red Lobster. Popeye’s. Arby’s. Corner Bakery. Carl’s Jr. The list goes on. On top of being some of the most iconic restaurants in the U.S., what do all of these companies have in common? According to U.S. Court documents, these brands have all faced bankruptcies over the past year as the “Restaurant Apocalypse” continues to wreak havoc across the nation. New reports reveal that America’s biggest chains are announcing the closure of thousands of locations right now. https://lnkd.in/gXPYfBPx

Restaurant sales ($55.6B) v Grocery Store Sales ($52.5B) for Sept. Restaurant dollar capture is on a roll. Regardless of price increases, US consumers are preferring restaurants. #restaurant #grocery #spending

There has been a recent wave of #restaurant closures across the industry in #2024. Major chains including TGI Fridays, MOD Pizza, Outback Steakhouse, Applebee's Grill & Bar, Boston Market, and Red Lobster. Hart House the #LosAngeles-based #vegan chain from comedian #KevinHart recently shuttered all of their stores with no explanation. The reasons behind the closures may vary, but the outcomes are similar — #job loss, vacant #retail and capital loss for #investors.

Leasing to nationals is not easy when the shopping center is in a middle or small market but if you pursue the right retailer, you might be in luck. CAVA, Chipotle Mexican Grill, Panda Express and Starbucks are among the restaurant chains seeking new growth opportunities in U.S. small towns, driven by changing food preferences and economic opportunities. Chipotle's "Chipotlane" drive-thru locations and strategic site selection are key to its success, while Cava and Panda Express focus on introducing new cuisines and engaging with local communities. The brands are filling gaps left by the closure of family-owned restaurants. Cheaper operating costs offset lower sales to ensure profitability. Brett Schulman, co-founder and CEO of Cava is attracted to small markets because they have very little competition. Chipotle’s chief brand officer, Chris Brandt says that Chipotle still has plenty of room to grow in small towns across the U.S. Chipotle plans to open another 3,500 fast casual restaurants over the next few years, with a sizable percentage located in small towns.

Chicken QSRs are still expanding and vying for market share, names such as Chick-fil-A Restaurants, KFC, popeyes, Wingstop Restaurants Inc., Krispy Krunchy Foods, Chick N Max, Raising Cane's Chicken Fingers, Zaxby's Franchising LLC, Church's Texas Chicken, Dave's Hot Chicken, El Pollo Loco, Inc., Bojangles' Restaurants, Inc., etc. Highlights: - Chick-fil-A has more than 3,000 locations in the U.S., Puerto Rico and Canada. It is the third-largest fast-food chain in the U.S., only behind McDonald's’s and Starbucks. Chick-fil-A restaurants have average sales of $7.5M. - KFC has 4,269 locations in the U.S., with California, Texas and Florida having the most KFC restaurants. There are 30,000 KFCs worldwide. - Popeyes, operated by Restaurant Brands International (RBI), has accelerated its expansion plans to grow its U.S. and Canada locations from nearly 3,400 stores last year to more than 4,200 by 2028. See report for more details.

The chain restaurant landscape of 2025 will inevitably look a little different than the previous year's. Based on their trajectories throughout 2024, and stated plans for the future, Smalls Sliders is one of the most likely to expand their footprints significantly in 2025. Simply put, expect to start seeing these chain restaurants everywhere before long. Reach out to Greg Guyuron gguyuron@anchorretail.com or Jimmy DiFonzo jdifonzo@anchorretail.com for sites in Northern Ohio Angela Greiner agreiner@anchorretail.com or Greg Guyuron to submit sites for Central Ohio and Dayton, Ohio! Anchor Retail Realty Resources #realtyresources #SmallsSliders https://lnkd.in/gaWtsmHQ

To achieve the sales of a single Chick-Fil-A restaurant, you would need to own: • 4.2x Wendy's • 4.5x Popeyes • 6.3x Domino's • 2.9x Chipotles • 5.1x Taco Bells • 2.2x McDonald's • 5.5x Burger Kings A few notes on these stats and the below chart: 1. The chart only includes businesses with over 500 locations Otherwise fan favorites like Shake Shack, In-N-Out Burger, and Portillo's would be on it. However I did notably forget to include Whataburger. They have 900+ locations with an average of ~$3.8M. I apologize to any Texan reading this 😢 . 2. The revenue represents averages of the freestanding versions of each restaurant. The blended average may differ. The info came directly from FDDs for the large majority of these brands. 3. Chick-Fil-A is obviously impressive, but Raising Cane's also deserves a ton of praise. They are relatively speaking, a newcomer to the scene. The McDonald's and Chick-Fil-A's of the world were founded in the 1950s and 1960s. Canes was started in the 90s! Many legacy brands have a multi-decade head start on them. Overall, one thing is for sure....America loves their fried chicken!!

What's the best burger in London? 🍔 Some months ago I asked Londoners in my viral social media channel and the 1,000+ answers were leaning towards your mainstream chains with the exception of some niche, independent burger brands like BLEECKER. This proves that it's really hard to emerge in the sea of competition. If you do not have that level of consistency, people will go to Burger King 'just because I know what to expect and it's cheaper'. Burger chains are doubling down on growth: BURGER KING UK plans to open 200 new sites over the next five years. Hyper-efficiency is the key here: they'll aim at optimising drive-thru locations. It also claims to be taking market share from "better burger" brands (trendy smash burger joints, beware!) Now, I am bougie, and I do want a good, high quality restaurant to win. Is that still possible? And, once again, what is the best burger in London right now? 🍔 #burger #restaurants #hospitalityindustry

Blaze Pizza will move its headquarters away from California where nearly one-third of its restaurants operate. Blaze at the end of 2023 operated 295 units in the U.S., 93 of which are in California, according to data from Technomic. The chain operates five locations in Georgia and 28 locations in neighboring Florida. Link to the full article in the comments. #foodserviceindustry #restaurantindustry #restaurantsupply #fooddistributor #foodmanufacturing #foodmanufacturer #foodmanufacturers #foodmarketing #dsr #restaurant #restaurantmanagement #pizza #pizzaindustry

Chipotle Mexican Grill, the fast casual restaurant chain, is using an old site selection playbook strategy from the heyday of QSR’s. The background: burger chains like Burger King and The Wendy's Company utilized the “Golden Arches” site selection strategy: Just find where McDonald's is building and find a location in proximity so much that you can see their iconic sign from your store. Why invest in all that research in #GIS when McDonalds has already done it? Now comes Chipotle, CAVA and Panda Restaurant Group that are utilizing the “Sparkle” site selection strategy, especially in smaller towns and cities. That is, get close to Walmart whose logo is commonly referred to as “the sparkle” or “sparklet.” According to a report in CNBC, Chipotle’s chief brand officer, Chris Brandt, said, “We look for proximity to the interstate and whether it is a hub of commerce in the area…but if they don’t have a Walmart or a Target to coattail traffic off of, it’s not as desirable. Interstates have always been a key site strategy…just see how many Cracker Barrel’s you can spot from I35 in Texas. What’s more interesting is that Chipotle is finding the “white space” left occupied in small towns by family-owned restaurants that went out of business during the pandemic, according to CNBC. It may be too simplistic to use a single criterion for a site selection strategy; it takes a bit more #locationintelligence, but it’s not a bad first pass at finding good locations. https://lnkd.in/dP2JMB2f #geospatial