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There is no way to sugarcoat the devastation 2020 wrought on full-service restaurants. Dine-in restrictions—both those mandated by municipalities and those taken out of caution—slashed revenues, even for brands that managed to parlay business off the premises.
Given such a low starting point, it’s no surprise that 2021 was a windfall year. Nearly all the publicly traded brands profiled in this edition of the FSR 50 posted double-digit percentage growth for system-wide sales. Not every brand has returned to 2019 levels, but a few have managed to surpass their pre-COVID numbers. At the same time, a number of privately held companies—large and small—are pushing forward, whether with sales, unit growth, or a combination of the two.
Major chains’ 2021 performances served as a point of stabilization after so much upheaval, but it will be the 2022 numbers that reveal which brands are leading the field ahead of a potential recession.
Click the links to dive into the data.