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The Future 50 (2008)
2008-06-23
There’s not a lot of positive buzz out there
right now, but percolating under all the doom and gloom is clear
evidence that you just can’t keep a good concept down or clip
the industry’s entrepreneurial wings.
There’s not a lot of positive buzz out there right now, but
percolating under all the doom and gloom is clear evidence that
you just can’t keep a good concept down or clip the industry’s
entrepreneurial wings. The Future 50, identified by Technomic,
Inc. as the fastest growing chains with sales between $25
million and $50 million, includes 32 that defied the odds to
grow sales by 20 percent or more in 2007. Of those, a dozen hit
40 percent or higher sales growth. As a group, they’re hot,
they’re nimble and they’ve got what many of their large
competitors don’t right now—momentum.
Of the 50, 27 are casual dining operations, 20
are limited-service restaurants and three are mid-scale
concepts. “Among the LSR companies, the group is pretty well
dominated by fast-casual concepts,” notes Darren Tristano,
executive vice president at Technomic. “From strictly a sales
volume perspective, they’re able to generate higher numbers than
are most purely limited-service operations. And casual dining
operations do even better when it comes to unit volumes, so from
this measure—sales alone—it makes sense that they dominate this
group. The reverse is probably true when you look at growth
strictly by numbers of units. That’s where LSRs tend to
dominate.”
Topping the 2008 Future 50 list is
Cincinnati-based Buffalo Wings & Rings, which more than doubled
its revenues in 2007 to hit an estimated $37 million. The
20-year-old regional concept has taken flight since new partners
came on board in early 2005. Led by Philip Schram, they’ve
launched an aggressive franchising program and taken BWR
national as well as into international markets in Kuwait and
Jordan. The company is selling new franchised units at a clip of
one per week.
Key:
S: 2007 Systemwide sales/% change
U: Total units open/% change
A: Average unit volume/% change
rankings based on percent change in sales
all percent changes vs. 2006
*Technomic estimate
1. Buffalo Wings and Rings
Milford, OH
S: $37 million*/111.4%
U: 25/92.3%
A: $2 million*/5.4%
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