Restaurant 200: Meet the Largest Franchisees in the Country

Franchise Times

Wed, July 29, 2026 at 3:35 PM GMT+3 6 min read

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Download the 2026 Franchise Times' Restaurant 200

The Restaurant 200's top 10 stayed largely intact and even saw some growth through a tense, topsy-turvy 2025 that was fraught with tariffs, increased food costs, labor challenges and inflation-driven consumer apathy.

Revenue among the top 10 increased by 4.2 percent over 2024. Those gains did not carry through the list, however, where growth was less than 1 percent, the lowest it's been since the COVID-19 pandemic broke out in 2020.

"The industry faced a lot of challenges with regard to increasing costs and some ongoing labor challenges," said Maeve Webster, president of Menu Matters, which works with foodservice clients on leveraging trends in food preparation, consumer behavior and operational innovations.

Top 10 largely unchanged

Flynn Group remains the largest of a list that didn't change much inside its top 10, though the mega franchisee did add 62 Pizza Hut locations to bring its total to 1,321. After taking a slight dip in 2024, Flynn Group posted a 3.2 percent revenue increase last year, to $4.9 billion.

Sun Holdings, Dhanani Group, KBP Brands and Sizzling Platter rounded out an unchanged top five. Anchor Point Management Group, on the strength of adding 25 Taco Bell and 21 7 Brew locations, overtook Haza Group, though Haza Group also expanded its portfolio during the year, adding eight Wendy's and two Taco Bells.

Tacala, with 24 new 7 Brew locations and 14 more Taco Bells, jumped from 10th to eighth, followed by Diversified Restaurant Group. MIC Glen, with 356 Taco Bell, 65 7 Brew and 18 Whataburger restaurants, broke into the top 10 for the first time.

Acquisitions galore

While it was not the best of times, there were transactions to be had.

AES Restaurants moved up 30 spots to No. 34 after acquiring 40 Arby's locations from another franchisee last May and 115 corporate-owned stores late in the year.

Fresh Dining Concepts had another year of significant growth, powered by closing 22 acquisitions. The company jumped 45 spots on the list to No. 43 through adding to its portfolio of GoTo Foods snack brands with Nothing Bundt Cakes, Little Caesars and PopUp Bagels.

"One of the most important items to us is simplicity and excellence in what you do," said Kevin Bush, executive chairman and chief strategy officer at Fresh Dining Concepts. "We prefer brands that are really, really good at one thing and those Little Caesars and Nothing Bundt Cakes are excellent at their one very specific products."

Acquisitions sometimes require a leap of faith, Fresh Dining Concepts executives said. Its first Nothing Bundt Cakes acquisition was for one location, but now it's among the largest operators in the system.

"You've got to be willing to gamble a little bit that the deal flow is going to come," CEO Mike Evans added. "We found a pretty big development agreement and we got a bunch of acquisitions shortly after getting in."

Eyas Capital debuted on the list this year, reporting $350 million in sales after adding to its portfolio of Subway and Burger Kings with the acquisition of 120 Bojangles restaurants from Jeff Rigsby of BOJ of WNC.

Eyas CEO Tim Foley said it wasn't about growing just to grow, but about buying into a brand the company has long admired.

"Bojangles is a system we happen to have been looking for an opportunity in for several years," he said. "We knew the owner, and we feel like we got a fair deal on a brand that we wanted to be in."

Taco Bell, 7 Brew drove sales

Other big movers include Minnesota-based Border Foods and Arizona-based Desert De Oro Foods, which went from 19th to 13th and 20th to 15th on the list, respectively. What they have in common is Taco Bell. Border Foods added five and Desert De Oro added 13. The dominant Mexican food chain is in the portfolios of 43 operators on the Restaurant 200.

Further down the list, Far West Services added 30 Wingstop locations to its portfolio and jumped 23 spots to No. 44. Vibe Restaurants moved up 20 spots with the addition of 26 Wingstops and four Whataburgers.

Premium Loaves capitalized on the addition of 27 Jimmy John's to move up 24 spots to No. 126. Growth of its Popeyes and Burger King portfolios pushed IRMG from No. 141 to No. 114, and KC Bell bumped up 12 spots, to No. 133, by adding eight new 7 Brews and a couple new Taco Bells.

While some legacy brands are struggling, Taco Bell remains steadfastly popular within portfolios of the largest franchisees. Rounding out the top six most-frequently owned brands are Wendy's (25), Burger King (21), Pizza Hut (20), KFC (17) and Dunkin' (17).

One to watch: Six Restaurant 200 companies have at least one 7 Brew, up from five in 2025. Brew Crew, its first franchisee, jumped 66 spots, to No. 61, after adding 58 of the drive-thru beverage stores.

Restaurant 200 Snapshot

$57.4 billion in revenue
33,635 total restaurants
Top 7 each exceed $1 billion in sales

About This Project

Our annual Restaurant 200 franchisee research, prepared by sister publication Restaurant Finance Monitor, includes questionnaires, phone surveys, and in some cases, a review of public documents such as annual reports, 10Ks, and FDDs. We sincerely thank the companies that responded to our surveys, as most of the top 200 companies in this year's ranking provided us with their complete data.

Our report consists of ranking companies according to revenue generated by the company's franchised restaurants. If the company happens to operate a restaurant concept that is not franchised, or is the franchisor of another concept, we will not include that number in the overall revenue or unit count. In some cases where an acquisition took place during the year, we derive pro-forma revenue in calculating the company's ranking.

For companies that did not respond to our survey, we confirmed the number of units operated by their company, and then estimated the revenue. In the case of a tie in the amount of total revenue, we settled the tie in favor of the company with the most units.

If you believe your company might make the Restaurant 200 list or we've missed you (or you know of another company that should be listed), please contact Matt Haskin at (612) 767-3205 or mhaskin@franchisetimes.com.