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Industry Analysis - Page 5 | QSR Pro
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Industry Analysis

Chain rankings, earnings, trends, competition, regulation

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industry
Industry Analysis

Chili's Just Posted Six Straight Quarters of Double-Digit Sales Growth. Fast Food Should Be Worried.

Something unexpected is happening in American dining: a sit-down restaurant chain with table service is beating fast food at its own game. Chili's has posted six consecutive quarters of double-digit same-store sales growth, driven by a $10.99 combo that directly competes with McDonald's and Wendy's value meals. For QSR operators, the implications are serious.

MAR 24, 2026 · 7 MIN READ
industry
Industry Analysis

Popeyes Is in Trouble: Sales Down Four Straight Quarters, Its Biggest Franchisee Just Filed Bankruptcy

Six years after the chicken sandwich that broke the internet, Popeyes is facing a very different kind of attention. Same-store sales fell for four consecutive quarters in 2025, and Sailormen Inc., one of the chain's largest franchisees with 136 locations across Florida and Georgia, filed Chapter 11 in January 2026 with $342 million in liabilities against $232 million in assets.

MAR 24, 2026 · 7 MIN READ
industry
Industry Analysis

Restaurant Brands International's 2028 Growth Algorithm: Can Burger King, Tim Hortons, and Popeyes Deliver?

RBI has reaffirmed its target of 8%-plus organic operating income growth through 2028 and plans to return $1.6 billion to shareholders in 2026. With Burger King's turnaround still proving itself, Tim Hortons expanding internationally, and Popeyes moderating, the question is whether the math works.

MAR 24, 2026 · 8 MIN READ
industry
Industry Analysis

Chick-fil-A's Daybright Cafe Is Its Biggest Strategic Bet in Decades

Chick-fil-A is testing a standalone beverage concept called Daybright, its first venture outside the core chicken restaurant format. With Starbucks in turnaround mode and the U.S. specialty beverage market worth over $48 billion, the timing could not be better.

MAR 24, 2026 · 8 MIN READ
industry
Industry Analysis

CAVA's Q1 2026: The Fast-Casual Chain That Defied Gravity

While Chipotle missed estimates and Sweetgreen's stock cratered 27.7%, CAVA posted $331.8M in revenue and 10.8% same-restaurant sales growth in Q1 2026. Here's what the Mediterranean chain is doing differently and why it matters for the fast-casual sector.

MAR 24, 2026 · 8 MIN READ
industry
Industry Analysis

Dutch Bros' Breakout Year: How a Drive-Thru Coffee Chain Is Outrunning Starbucks

Dutch Bros posted $1.64 billion in 2025 revenue, a 27.9% jump, while expanding to 1,136 locations and guiding toward $2 billion in 2026. As Starbucks stumbles through a complicated turnaround, the Oregon-born drive-thru chain is writing a different kind of growth story.

MAR 24, 2026 · 9 MIN READ
industry
Industry Analysis

Burger King's $350 Million China Bet: RBI and CPE Target 4,000 Restaurants by 2035

Restaurant Brands International has completed a joint venture with CPE that injects $350 million into Burger King China, targeting 4,000 locations by 2035. With CPE taking 83% ownership and a 20-year master development agreement in place, this is the biggest QSR international expansion bet of 2026.

MAR 24, 2026 · 8 MIN READ
industry
Industry Analysis

Raising Cane's Explosive Growth: How a One-Item Menu Built a Global Expansion Machine

While major chains shutter hundreds of locations, Raising Cane's is opening nearly 100 new company-owned restaurants in 2026 and launching into London and Mexico. The privately held chicken finger chain's radical simplicity is proving to be its greatest competitive advantage.

MAR 24, 2026 · 8 MIN READ
industry
Industry Analysis

Papa John's Plans 300 Store Closures While Betting Big on a Turnaround

Papa John's will shutter roughly 300 underperforming North American locations by end of 2027, with 200 closures targeted for this year alone. New CEO Todd Penegor, who previously led Wendy's through its own reset, is cutting dead weight while laying the groundwork for what the company hopes will be a durable recovery.

MAR 24, 2026 · 6 MIN READ
industry
Industry Analysis

Wendy's Is Closing Up to 350 U.S. Locations. Here's What Went Wrong.

Wendy's posted its worst same-store sales decline since the pandemic and is now closing up to 358 U.S. restaurants in the first half of 2026. A breakdown of what went wrong: breakfast underperformance, value messaging failures, leadership instability, and franchise economics that no longer work.

MAR 24, 2026 · 10 MIN READ
industry
Industry Analysis

Pizza Hut Is Closing 250 U.S. Locations in 2026. The Problem Runs Deeper Than You Think.

Yum! Brands is shuttering 250 Pizza Hut locations in the first half of 2026 as part of a program called 'Hut Forward.' But the store count is a symptom, not the disease. A structural mismatch between the brand's legacy dine-in identity and a delivery-dominated market has left Pizza Hut fighting for relevance while Domino's laps it on every metric that matters.

MAR 24, 2026 · 8 MIN READ
industry
Industry Analysis

Brian Niccol's Starbucks Turnaround: How 'Back to Starbucks' Delivered the First Traffic Growth in Two Years

Starbucks posted its first U.S. transaction growth in eight quarters under CEO Brian Niccol. The playbook is surprisingly simple: faster drinks, fewer menu items, and a $600 million bet on people.

MAR 24, 2026 · 9 MIN READ
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