Econintersect: It has always been a hard fought battle between the world’s top burger chains to see who would be the one to come out top in sales and store count. Recent annual reporting provided by Technomic announced the burger chain Wendy’s had surpassed Burger King in sales last year at $8.5 billion. Burger King had reported $8.4 billion in sales, with McDonald’s still at the top of the chart with a reported $34.2 billion in sales.
With a continuing identity crises and constant brand revitalizations, food chains of all categories have struggled to come out on top. The fact that Wendy’s restaurant count is far below that of Burger King, makes its rise in sales even more stunning. Beyond the scope of burger, food chains domestically and internationally reported increases in sales. Now that’s juicy.
These numbers are very encouraging. The top 500 systemwide food chains according to Technomic reported an annual sales increase of 3.4%. That brings the total sales to a staggering $242 billion (franchises and company-owned, with the exclusion of corporate revenue), up $8 billion from 2010. Despite the massive sales numbers, companies in the food industry are still struggling with today’s economic conditions as well as with fierce competition within the industry.
Other categories saw encouraging increases as well:
- Limited service restaurants saw a sales hike of 3.7% with the majority of growth coming from the coffee and tea, Mexican and other sandwich categories.
- Full service restaurants saw a grand total of 2.8% increase in sales in 2011.
- Sales abroad experienced a 6.4% increase, higher than domestic sales.
- The top ten fastest growing food chains witnessed an increase of 22% with sales accounting for $8.2 billion.
It’s good to know we haven’t lost our appetites.
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