34 Franchise Times | August 2019 T he fevered pace of consolidation con- tinues in the restaurant industry, meaning the big continue to get bigger in the face of some serious challenges. At year-end 2018, the Restaurant 200 oversaw 28,642 restaurants and gener- ated $40.5 billion in revenue—up 3.58 per- cent from last year’s rankings. The top 25 generated nearly half of that, or $18.1 billion. At No. 1, for the eighth year in a row, Flynn Restaurant Group saw $2.3 billion in sales, making it the first private franchisee to crest the $2 billion mark. What did change this year is an incred- ible investment in technology, efficiency and new ways to get food to consumers, plus more and more financing options for major operators. That quality technology empowers bet- ter ability to scale, making it easier for large operators to get ever larger. And while capi- tal was slightly more difficult to get than prior years, large operators have proven their prowess and have ample options from every facet of the financial world, including alternative lenders, private equity, securi- tized debt instruments, family offices and yes, even traditional banking relationships. All that fuels a feedback loop where large operations can get larger and more effi- ciently spread overhead over a huge num- ber of restaurants. It also allows them to absorb smaller franchises or tap into the ongoing refran- chising push. But scale isn’t everything. The largest operators on the list are ready and have growth in their DNA— that’s not an easy thing to adopt. Flynn Restaurant Group said operations actually became easier as the com- pany grew. The group was also the fastest grower in 2018, adding $485 million in sales, mostly driven by a massive acquisition of United States Beef Corp.’s 368 Arby’s res- taurants. CEO Greg Flynn credits the “state and federal” model for that growth. “The whole idea is that it is difficult and ineffective to run multiple restaurants with central command and control. It’s too com- plicated and there are too many local fac- tors,” said Flynn. All of the nearly 1,250 Applebee’s, Arby’s, Taco Bell and Panera res- taurants are broken into geographic clusters of 20 to 40 stores in a mar- ket with its own “general autonomy” to make oper- ational policy, employment and investment decisions. Flynn added with the state and federal model, there is no limit to the com- pany’s growth. But there are plenty of groups at which massive scale just leads to massive problems. Whether it’s too much debt, a lag- ging brand or a management team that can’t make it work, scale doesn’t always snowball. “I witnessed a franchisee’s financial ‘house of cards’ more than once in my career work- ing with tier-one brands,” said Dine Brands Growers grow as big names sell out Ranking the franchised biggest in the U.S. restaurant owners By Nicholas Upton, John Hamburger and David Farkas Research by Matt Haskin and Donny Krieger
Transcript
34 Franchise Times | August 2019
T he fevered pace of consolidation con-tinues in the restaurant industry, meaning the big continue to get bigger in the face of some serious challenges.
At year-end 2018, the Restaurant 200 oversaw 28,642 restaurants and gener-ated $40.5 billion in revenue—up 3.58 per-cent from last year’s rankings. The top 25 generated nearly half of that, or $18.1 billion. At No. 1, for the eighth year in a row, Flynn Restaurant Group saw $2.3 billion in sales, making it the first private franchisee to crest the $2 billion mark.
What did change this year is an incred-ible investment in technology, efficiency and new ways to get food to consumers, plus more and more financing options for major operators.
That quality technology empowers bet-ter ability to scale, making it easier for large operators to get ever larger. And while capi-tal was slightly more difficult to get than prior years, large operators have proven their prowess and have ample options from every facet of the financial world, including
alternative lenders, private equity, securi-tized debt instruments, family offices and yes, even traditional banking relationships.
All that fuels a feedback loop where large operations can get larger and more effi-ciently spread overhead over a huge num-ber of restaurants. It also allows them to absorb smaller franchises or tap into the ongoing refran-chising push.
But scale isn’t everything. The largest operators on the list are ready and have growth in their DNA—that’s not an easy thing to adopt.
Flynn Restaurant Group said operations actually became easier as the com-pany grew. The group was also the fastest grower in 2018, adding $485 million in sales, mostly driven by a massive acquisition of United States Beef Corp.’s 368 Arby’s res-taurants. CEO Greg Flynn credits the “state and federal” model for that growth.
“The whole idea is that it is difficult and ineffective to run multiple restaurants with central command and control. It’s too com-plicated and there are too many local fac-tors,” said Flynn. All of the nearly 1,250 Applebee’s, Arby’s, Taco Bell and Panera res-taurants are broken into geographic clusters
of 20 to 40 stores in a mar-ket with its own “general autonomy” to make oper-ational policy, employment and investment decisions.
Flynn added with the state and federal model, there is no limit to the com-pany’s growth.
But there are plenty of groups at which massive scale just leads to massive
problems. Whether it’s too much debt, a lag-ging brand or a management team that can’t make it work, scale doesn’t always snowball.
“I witnessed a franchisee’s financial ‘house of cards’ more than once in my career work-ing with tier-one brands,” said Dine Brands
Growers grow as big names sell out
Ranking the franchisedbiggestin the U.S.restaurant owners
By Nicholas Upton, John Hamburger and David Farkas
Research by Matt Haskin and Donny Krieger
August 2019 | Franchise Times 35
Global’s former chairwoman and CEO Julia Stewart. “In each case, an inexperienced franchisee over-leveraged in an attempt to get big quickly, eventually collapsed or went bankrupt.”
Flynn acknowledged a “distressed situ-ation” involving an Applebee’s franchisee selling 69 restaurants to franchisor Dine Brands Global last December. The former franchisee, Apple Gold, operated the units in North Carolina and South Carolina. Another of the brand’s large franchisees in southeast Ohio, RMH Holdings, filed for bankruptcy last year. It settled a court bat-tle with the franchisor, allowing RMH to retain ownership of its 146 restaurants.
While there were lots of retirement par-ties and big acquisitions, some of the 14 companies that completely sold out likely had market conditions to blame. Rosy con-sumer sentiments and modest wage growth should mean a great market for restaurants, but there are too many units and more chain restaurants coming online every day. That leads to anemic traffic and consumer indif-ference. Throw in intense, historic labor pressures and high multiples and it’s no wonder groups large and small are selling out.
U.S. Beef was the largest, but Cerca Trova (No. 42 last year) sold 107 Outback restaurants to private equity firm HIG Capital. Gold Coast holdings (No. 44 last year) dropped off the list after selling 76 TGI Fridays units back to the company, and Cambridge Franchise Holdings (No. 55 last year) sold 150 Burger King restaurants to Carrols (No. 4).
These were all companies at scale with nine-figure sales volumes, enough to tap into many benefits of a large entity, but it’s a tough time to run a restaurant business. Large companies are feeling the same panic as small ones, leading them to open their wallets on technology and embrace off-premises channels, looking for any traction. Digital ordering, loyalty, social media and labor management are hot solutions—any-thing to blunt the impact of the many exis-tential forces at work across the industry.
The late, famous management consultant, Peter Drucker, wrote that entrepreneurs when challenged shift resources from areas of low productivity and yield into areas of higher productivity and yield. That explains the technology imperative in restaurants today, a game changer that’s elevated big chains such as Domino’s and Starbucks. But for others, it’s a steep cost of just staying in business. Those that have the resources and management capacity to sort their way through it will continue to grow.
The 11 Sellers of the Restaurant 200
Sellers Take $1.9 Billion Piece of Restaurant 200 Pie
Rank LY Company Units 2017
21 United States Beef Corp. 362 Arby's, 6 Taco Bueno
42Cerca Trova Restaurant Concepts
107 Outback Steakhouse
44 Gold Coast Holdings 76 TGI Fridays, 15 Wendy's
51 MarLu Management Co. *52 Arby's, 38 Church's Chicken, 35 Little Caesars, 21 Jack in the Box, 16 TGI Fridays, 5 Sizzler
55 Cambridge Franchise Holdings 150 Burger King
62 Apple Gold Group 123 Applebee's
67 Century Management 68 McDonald's
113 America's Pizza Company 126 Pizza Hut
144 High Plains Pizza 86 Pizza Hut
169 Wendco Group 45 Wendy's
185 Ponder Enterprises 37 Hardee's
*MarLu Management ownership passed its operations on to the next generation.
THE TOP 200 OPERATORS COMMAND: $40.5 billion in revenue 28,642 restaurants Top 5 firms combine for $7.3 billion in sales
Eleven companies (listed above) previously ranked on the Restaurant 200 sold their portfolios in 2018. Together they accounted for $1.9 billion in sales and 1,368 restau-rants. The largest, United States Beef Corp., sold its entire portfo-lio of Arby’s restaurants.
$40.5 billion $1.9 billion
August 2019 | Franchise Times 35
36 Franchise Times | August 2019
4 Carrols Restaurant Group Syracuse, NY 1,179,307,000 849 Burger King
5 MUY! Companies San Antonio, TX 948,788,000 373 Pizza Hut 318 Wendy’s 80 Taco Bell
6 Manna Louisville, KY 924,000,000 261 Wendy’s 125 Chili’s 83 Fazoli’s
7 KBP Investments Overland Park, KS 851,000,000 642 KFC 96 Taco Bell
8 Summit Restaurant Group Richardson, TX 828,000,000 300 IHOP 119 Applebee’s 13 Sonny’s
9 Sun Holdings Dallas, TX 788,000,000 294 Burger King 160 Popeyes 97 Arby’s
72 Jackmont Hospitality Atlanta, GA 37 TGI Fridays 1 Einstein’s
73 Meridian Restaurants South Ogden, UT 126 Burger King 10 Chili’s
74 The Rose Group Newtown, PA 54 Applebee’s
75 T.L. Cannon Management Ponte Vedra Beach, FL 61 Applebee’s
76 QK Holdings Phoenix, AZ 91 Denny’s 9 Del Taco
77 The Saxton Group Dallas, TX 80 McAlister’s Deli
With some shuffling at the top of the ranks, KBP Investments moves into the No. 7 slot, up from No. 9 last year
thanks to sales growth of $131 million. KBP added 45 KFC stores and 5 Taco Bells to its Overland Park, Kansas-
based operations.
7
Sales for The Briad Group, operator of 115 Wendy’s and 49 TGI Fridays units (7 fewer than in 2017), fell $12 million as it slips one spot to No. 15. The company did add 3
Wendy’s stores.
15
* Denotes revenue estimate
38 Franchise Times | August 2019
78 Diversified Restaurant Holdings Southfield, MI 64 Buffalo Wild Wings
79 The RC Group Annapolis, MD 68 Taco Bell 22 YUM! Multi
80 Apple Investors Group Chino Hills, CA 46 Applebee’s 19 Pizza Hut $135-$150 MILLION
81 Metro Corral Partners Winter Park, FL 32 Golden Corral 4 Krispy Kreme
82 Apple-Metro Harrison, NY 33 Applebee’s 2 Pizza Studio
83 Southern Multifoods Jacksonville, TX 94 Taco Bell 8 YUM! Multi
FOUR OPERATORS ON THE RESTAURANT 200 ADDED $100 MILLION OR MORE IN REVENUE YEAR-OVER-YEAR.
The average revenue for a Restaurant 200 operator is now $202.8 million—that’s up by more than $7 million this year.The additional six locations on average helps grow revenue; the average operator now has 141 locations.
The Franchise Times Restaurant 200 keeps growing.
Legacy brands are the favorite for the Franchise Times Restaurant 200, and large operators are the favorites of legacy brands.
Rank Brand Companies # of Units Franchise %
1 Pizza Hut 30 4229 57%
2 Taco Bell 41 3785 62%
3 Burger King 27 3581 49%
4 Wendy's 27 3276 60%
5 KFC 20 1631 41%
6 Applebee's 19 1463 90%
7 Panera Bread 12 915 81%
8 Arby's 13 894 41%
9 Popeyes 9 744 32%
10 Hardee's 6 714 41%
This table shows a breakdown of the most popular brands by the number of companies in the top brands, the number of locations operated by the Restaurant 200 and the relative percentage of those locations to the total U.S. franchised locations.
The group now owns nearly 29,000 restaurants and commands $40.5 billion in revenue.
2014 2015 2016 2017 2018
Avg. Revenue (In Millions) Avg. Units
BULKING UP: THE RESTAURANT 200 IN NUMBERS
2008
16,489
$21.3
2009
16,715
$21.8
2010
17,887
$23.2
2011
18,408
$23.9
2012
20,331
$26.3
2013
21,831
$28.7
2014
23,177
$31
2015
25,176
$34.6
2016
26,993
$37.5
2017 2018
28,109 28,642
$39.1$40.5
$155
116
$173
126
$187.5
135
$195.5$202.8
141 143
Revenue (In Millions)
Locations
40 Franchise Times | August 2019
120 SERVUS! Jasper, IN 34 Wendy’s 20 Denny’s
121* Hielan Management McKinney, TX 42 Chili’s
122 KC Bell Wichita, KS 35 Taco Bell 25 Freddy’s
123* Benton Properties Springdale, AR 69 Sonic Drive-In
124* Marwaha Group Anaheim, CA 149 Subway 1 Denny’s
125 DRM Omaha, NE 93 Arby’s
126 MRCO Brentwood, TN 43 Taco Bell 13 YUM! Multi
127 Delight Restaurant Group Norfolk, VA 31 Wendy’s 24 Taco Bell
128* Wisconsin Hospitality Group Waukesha, WI 34 Applebee’s 31 Pizza Hut
$80-$90 MILLION
129 Friendly Franchisees Corp. La Palma, CA 69 Carl’s Jr.
130 Rackson Restaurants Bridgewater, NJ 52 Burger King
131* Wenco Ashland, OH 64 Wendy’s
132 Platinum Corral Jacksonville, NC 26 Golden Corral
133* Cowabunga Alpharetta, GA 109 Domino’s
134 Brodersen Management Corp. Milwaukee, WI 60 Popeyes
135* Schuster Enterprises Columbus, GA 68 Burger King
136* JK&T Wings Shelby Township, MI 30 Buffalo Wild Wings 1 Smashburger
137* Southeast Restaurant Group New Orleans, LA 27 Taco Bell 18 TGI Fridays
138 Bullard Restaurant Group Raleigh, NC 32 Moe’s SW Grill 20 Burger King
139* RCO Limited Columbus, OH 30 Raising Cane’s
140 Genesh Lenexa, KS 55 Burger King 18 Denny’s
141* Tri-Arc Food Systems Raleigh, NC 51 Bojangles
142* Legacy Apple Wichita, KS 41 Applebee’s
$70-$80 MILLION
143 Ansara Restaurant Group Farmington Hills, MI 22 Red Robin 4 Twin Peaks
144 Howley Bread Group Westlake, OH 28 Panera Bread
145 Westaco Scottsdale, AZ 47 Taco Bell 8 YUM! Multi
146* DMAC81 Van Wert, OH 47 McAlister’s Deli 4 Dunkin’ Donuts
147* Ultra Steak Fishers, IN 22 Little Caesars 13 Texas Roadhouse
148 Carisch Wayzata, MN 65 Arby’s
149* Oerther Foods Orlando, FL 24 McDonald’s
150 Roaring Fork Restaurant Group Milwaukee, WI 57 Qdoba Mexican Eats
Our annual Restaurant 200 franchisee research, prepared by sister publication Restaurant Finance Monitor, includes
questionnaires, phone surveys, and in some cases, a review of public documents such as annual reports, 10Ks and FDDs. We sincerely thank the companies that responded to our surveys, as most of the top 200 companies in this year’s ranking provided us with their complete data.
Our report consists of ranking companies according to revenue generated by the com-pany’s franchised restaurants. If the com-pany happens to operate a restaurant concept that is not franchised, or is the franchisor of another concept, we will not include that
number in the overall revenue or unit count. In some cases where an acquisition took place during the year, we derive pro-forma revenue in calculating the company’s ranking.
For companies that did not respond to our survey, we confirmed the number of units operated by their company, and then esti-mated the revenue. In the case of a tie in the amount of total revenue, we settled the tie in favor of the company with the most units.
If you believe your company might make the Restaurant 200 list or we’ve missed you (or you know of another company that should be listed), please contact Matt Haskin at (612) 767-3200 or [email protected].
About this project
Apple Investors Group parted ways with 73 Burger King stores,
its entire stake in the brand, and shed its single IHOP location.
The company, based in Chino Hills, California, fell to No. 80 this year from No. 57 in 2018.
Apple Investors did add one Applebee’s restau-rant and one Pizza Hut
to its store count.
80
* Denotes revenue estimate
42 Franchise Times | August 2019
Company ......................... RankAB Enterprises .................. 168ADF Restaurant Group ......... 44All Star Management ......... 172American Franchise Holdings .............................51American West Restaurant Group ................ 39Ampex Brands .................... 18Ampler Group ................... 102Ansara Restaurant Group ... 143Apple Investors Group ..........80Apple-Metro ....................... 82Awesome Doughnut ........... 178B & G Food Enterprises ........63Beavers ............................181Benton Properties ............. 123Blue Ribbon Restaurants .... 170BMW Management ............ 152Boddie-Noell Enterprises .....20Boj of WNC ...................... 113Border Foods ...................... 32Branded Management Group ...............................111Brodersen Management Corp. ............................... 134Brumit Restaurant Group ....167Bullard Restaurant Group ... 138BurgerBusters .................... 49Capitol Dough ................... 158Carisch ............................ 148Carlisle Corp. ...................... 55Carolina Restaurant Group ................................ 70Carrols Restaurant Group ....... 4Caspers Company ............... 64Cave Enterprises ..................61Celebration Restaurant Group ................................ 65Century Fast Foods ........... 180Charter Foods ..................... 29CKA Management ...............99Cotti Foods Corp. ................ 33Covelli Enterprises .............. 10Cowabunga ...................... 133Creative Foods Corp. ......... 175D.L. Rogers Corp. ................ 26Daland Corp. .................... 118Delight Restaurant Group ....127Den-Tex Central .................114Denco Family .....................174Desert de Oro Foods ............ 35Dhanani Group Group .................................31
Diversified Restaurant Holdings ............................ 78DMAC81 .......................... 146Doherty Enterprises ............. 14DORO ................................89DRM ............................... 125DYNE Hospitality Group ......197Elbardi Group of Companies ................... 169Emerald City Pizza .............112Falcon Holdings .................. 23Flynn Restaurant Group ......... 1FOR Northwest ..................191Four Foods Group ................ 95Fourteen Foods ...................48Franchise Management ........ 34Friendly Franchisees Corp. . 129Fugate Enterprises .............. 47GC Partners ..................... 196Genesh ............................ 140Ghai Management Services .............................43GPS Hospitality .................. 12Great American Chicken Corp. ................... 119Hallrich .............................116Hamra Enterprises ..............30Harman Management Corp. .. 24HAZA Foods ....................... 28Heartland Beef ................. 190Hielan Management ...........121Hishmeh Enterprises ......... 165Hospitality Restaurant Group ................ 69Howley Bread Group .......... 144Jackmont Hospitality ........... 72JAE Restaurant Group .......... 27Janco .................................88Janjer Enterprises ...............151JEM Resaurant Management Corp. ............ 164JEM Restaurant Group ....... 105JK&T Wings ...................... 136JM Foods ......................... 192JRN ................................... 54K-Mac Enterprises ................17Kazi Management St. Croix ........................... 106KBP Investments .................. 7KC Bell ............................ 122Kergan Bros. Sonic ............ 155Legacy Apple .................... 142Lehigh Valley Restaurant Group .............. 154
