Last year was a difficult one for restaurant companies, as food and labor inflation conspired with weak sales and excess leverage to put a number of them into bankruptcy. Many that didn’t might as well have.
This is reflected in the Technomic Top 500 Chain Restaurant Report. Several once-hot restaurant companies dropped off the ranking this year, typically following years of weakness. That includes some interesting restaurant chains that at one point or another were considered important or innovative brands.
Here’s a look at some of the chains that fell off this year’s ranking:
Au Bon Pain
Few restaurant chains have had quite the freefall that Au Bon Pain has had over the past couple of years.
The bakery/café chain, which served as the inspiration for Panera Bread, saw its sales cut in half last year, thanks mostly to unit closures. As such, it fell from No. 313 on the Top 500 ranking to off it entirely. It was the 566th-ranked restaurant chain in 2024, according to Technomic Top 1,500 data.
That’s not the worst of it. The 2024 numbers followed a 36% decline in 2023. In just two years, in other words, the company lost more than two-thirds of its sales, from $168.2 million to $52 million.
The chain was reacquired by Panera before the pandemic and then sold in 2021 to the Yum Brands franchisee Ampex Brands, which for a bit started opening locations but has apparently closed a lot of them more recently. It had more than 200 locations at one point and 135 units before the pandemic. It is down to 34.
Macaroni Grill
Macaroni Grill was once a valuable part of the publicly traded Brinker International. In 2008, with 230 locations, it was sold to the private-equity firm Golden Gate Capital for $131.5 million. The financial crash interrupted the deal and the price was eventually cut to $88 million. By 2013 it was sold to Ignite Restaurant Group for $55 million.
Ignite, which owned Joe’s Crab Shack, struggled to turn Macaroni Grill around and sold it just two years later for $8 million, a stunning 94% reduction in valuation in just two years. And then in 2018 both Ignite and Macaroni Grill filed for bankruptcy.
Mac Grill was sold out of bankruptcy to an investment firm and sold again in 2023. Last year was a particularly tough one for the casual-dining chain. Sales declined by 28%. It closed more than a quarter of its restaurants. The brand that once operated more than 200 restaurants was down to just 21.
Fuddruckers
Much like these other chains, Fuddruckers at one point operated more than 200 locations. It was part of a publicly traded restaurant company in Luby’s. But it was also undone by the growth of fast-casual burger chains.
The company’s sales have been plunging for years, mostly because the average Fuddruckers location has lost a lot of business. To wit: In 2004, it operated 234 restaurants that generated $1.5 million average unit volumes and $354 million in U.S. system sales.
Fuddruckers declined for years. By 2020, when parent company Luby’s opted to liquidate its assets after it was unable to find a buyer, the chain was sold to a franchisee. And it has been in freefall.
Its sales have plunged annually since then, including a 23% system sales decline last year, including a 10% decline in average unit volumes. Those volumes last year were just over $1.1 million, or 28% lower than the volumes 20 years earlier.
Other notable Top 500 departures
Tender Greens, the fast-casual salad chain, filed for bankruptcy last year along with sister concept Tocaya. The company at one point featured investors such as Danny Meyer’s Union Square Hospitality Group. But heavy debt and a loss of some 30% of its delivery business after the end of a deal with Postmates ultimately did the company in. Tender Greens sales declined 10% and it fell off the Top 500.
Smallcakes Cupcakery has not done well since the pandemic. The company finished 2019 with 190 locations and more than $88 million in system sales. It was sold in 2021 to the Derbyshire Group. But it has been declining since then. System sales are down 32% since then, including a 14% decline in 2024 that lost it a place on the Top 500.
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