The 500 largest U.S. restaurant chains registered a 1.8 percent increase in sales in 2010, Chicago-based foodservice consultancy Technomic announced on Monday as it released the preliminary findings of its annual “Technomic Top 500” report.
According to Technomic, U.S. system-wide sales for the Top 500 grew to USD 234 billion in 2010, up more than USD 4 billion from 2009.
That’s a significant improvement from last year’s report. The 500 largest U.S. restaurant chains posted a 0.8 percent decline in sales in 2009, compared to a 3.4 percent increase in 2008.
“We are pleased to see improvements in the U.S. economy begin to translate into improved performance for the leading restaurant chains,” said Technomic President Ron Paul. “The industry has a lot of ground to recover and still faces many challenges. But our latest findings on 2010 chain performance are certainly encouraging.”
More than 50 percent of the 500 largest U.S. restaurant chains posted at least nominal sales increases; only 231 of these chains suffered sales declines in 2010, compared to 283 in 2009.
