Industry Analysis Articles
207 PIECES · UPDATED DAILY
International Pizza Expo 2026: What the World's Largest Pizza Trade Show Reveals About a $46 Billion Industry
The International Pizza Expo returns to Las Vegas this week with 10,000 professionals, 500 exhibitors, and a competitive landscape that mirrors the industry itself: winners pulling away while weak operators struggle to survive.
Record Beef, Cheap Eggs: The Protein Cost Divergence Reshaping QSR Menus
Beef hit $9.64 per pound in February, the highest price ever recorded. Eggs are projected to fall 27.4% this year. The widest protein cost gap in decades is forcing operators to rethink menu engineering, daypart strategy, and pricing architecture.
One in Eleven Full-Service Restaurants Could Close This Year. Here's the Data.
Black Box Intelligence data shows 9% of full-service restaurants are at risk of closure in 2026, with 3% already past the point of no return. The format divergence between fast casual and traditional sit-down dining is accelerating.
CAVA's Billion-Dollar Year: How the Mediterranean Chain Became Fast-Casual's Newest Powerhouse
CAVA crossed $1 billion in annual revenue for the first time in 2025, growing 22.5% year-over-year while opening 72 new restaurants. With 76 more planned for 2026 and a 1,000-store target by 2032, the Mediterranean chain is rewriting the fast-casual growth playbook.
Solo Dining Hits 47% of QSR Visits as the 'Me Economy' Reshapes Restaurant Strategy
Nearly half of all quick-service restaurant visits are now solo occasions, up from 31% four years ago. The chains adapting their menus, store formats, and loyalty tech to single-guest economics are pulling ahead.
GLP-1 Weight Loss Drugs Are Quietly Rewriting QSR Menus in 2026
From Shake Shack's GLP-1 friendly 'Good Fit' menu to Smoothie King's dedicated drug-user section, chains are engineering menus around a growing cohort of Americans on weight loss medications. Operators who ignore this shift do so at their own risk.
Fatburger Opens in Paris: First of 30 Locations Planned Across France by 2028
FAT Brands is pushing Fatburger into France with 30 units targeted by 2028, starting with a new location near Paris. The expansion raises a pointed question for the industry: can a financially distressed franchisor build a winning international presence while fighting through Chapter 11 at home?
KFC's American Decline: How the Original Chicken Chain Fell to Fifth Place
KFC, the chain that invented fast-food fried chicken in America, has fallen to fifth place among US chicken chains. Consumer spending dropped 4% to $4.34 billion as Raising Cane's and Wingstop surged past the Yum Brands stalwart, exposing structural problems no LTO can fix.
Layne's Chicken Fingers Signs 44-Unit West Texas Deal as Franchise Surge Accelerates
A College Station chicken finger brand that once operated a single restaurant near Texas A&M is now chasing statewide saturation. A 44-unit deal with C5 Restaurants signals Layne's may be on a trajectory similar to Raising Cane's early expansion years. Whether the crowded chicken QSR segment leaves room for another ascent is the central question operators and investors should be asking.
Zaxby's Crosses 1,000 Restaurants and Sets Its Sights on a National Footprint
Zaxby's quietly surpassed 1,000 restaurants in January 2026, operating across 22 states with 60+ new openings planned for the year. The brand's Modern Farmhouse prototype and Goldman Sachs-backed expansion push raise a core question for the industry: can a deeply regional chain scale to national relevance without losing what made it work?
Dave's Hot Chicken and Roark Capital: A Billion-Dollar Bet on Becoming the Next Wingstop
Roark Capital paid roughly $1 billion for a 245-unit Nashville hot chicken chain in June 2025. The math only makes sense if you understand the Wingstop playbook Roark has already run once before, and why Dave's Hot Chicken might be the one brand positioned to repeat it.
19-Unit Starbird Signs 36-Store Texas Deal to Triple Its Footprint
A California super-premium chicken chain just signed its biggest development deal ever, with a Texas auto dealership empire as the franchisee.
Gong cha Buys Back 170 U.S. Franchise Locations to Fuel National Push
Gong cha's acquisition of master franchise rights covering 170 U.S. locations signals a structural shift in how the global bubble tea leader plans to control its American growth.
Raising Cane's Opens Its 1,000th Restaurant on Hollywood Boulevard
Raising Cane's milestone 1,000th location on Hollywood Boulevard is more than a vanity number. It signals a brand with serious scale ambitions, a World Cup strategy, and a founder finally coming home.
MCL Restaurant and Bakery Shrinks to Seven Locations After 76 Years of Cafeteria-Style Dining
MCL, once a 30-location Midwest cafeteria institution, is closing five more units this month and citing years of declining sales. What the chain's collapse reveals about America's dying cafeteria format.
Wonder's $7 Billion Bet: How Marc Lore's Food Hall Model Is Rewriting the Multi-Brand Playbook
Marc Lore's Wonder has raised $600 million at a $7 billion valuation and acquired Grubhub for $650 million, building a food hall concept that promises to solve what ghost kitchens never could. The model is ambitious, the expansion pace is aggressive, and the implications for QSR operators are significant.
Chipotle Opens Its First Restaurant in Mexico: A Calculated Gamble on the Country That Inspired It
Chipotle Mexican Grill is entering Mexico for the first time in 2026, selling American-interpreted Mexican food to the nation that invented the original. The irony is obvious. The business logic, though, is worth examining carefully.
Long John Silver's Shrinks Below 500 Locations: The Quiet Collapse of America's Largest Seafood QSR
Long John Silver's ended 2024 with just 485 locations, down from roughly 1,500 at its early-2000s peak. The chain's 57-year slide offers a case study in structural disadvantage, franchise economics gone wrong, and the limits of turnaround playbooks.