Financing

A look into the Top 500 chain restaurants

A Deeper Dive: Kevin Schimpf, Technomic's senior director of research and insights, joins the restaurant finance podcast to talk about the Top 500 chain restaurant report, including which restaurant brands won and which ones lost.

How did restaurants do in 2024?

This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast A Deeper Dive is all about the Technomic Top 500 Chain Restaurant Report.

Kevin Schimpf, senior director of industry research at Restaurant Business sister company Technomic, joins the episode to talk about the ranking. 

The restaurant industry did not have a great year in 2024 if you look at the overall numbers. Kevin and I talk about that and why restaurants didn’t do as well.

We also talk about what sectors did well and what did not. Hint: It’s more menu based than anything else. We talk about the shift from some concepts to others and from some menu types to others and what it means for the future of the industry. We talk about Texas Roadhouse, McDonald’s, Starbucks, KFC, Raising Cane’s, Chick-fil-A and others. 

And also what sector should not exist.

We’re talking Top 500 on A Deeper Dive, so please check it out.

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts.

Subscribe on Spotify.

Members help make our journalism possible. Become a Restaurant Business member today and unlock exclusive benefits, including unlimited access to all of our content. Sign up here.

Multimedia

Exclusive Content

Financing

Focus on dine-in customers, even as more opt for takeout

The Bottom Line: Data from Technomic shows that dine-in service builds equity with customers. So restaurant chains should not ignore it, even if most business walks out the door.

Financing

Social media is changing the restaurant industry

The Bottom Line: From the success of brands like Crumbl and Dave’s Hot Chicken to the struggles at Starbucks and McDonald’s, social media is playing a massive role in how consumers view chains.

Financing

Here's what people are talking about at the National Restaurant Show

The Bottom Line: We had a lot of conversations during the first two days of the country’s biggest restaurant exhibition in Chicago. Here’s what we’ve been hearing.

Trending

More from our partners