Limited Service: The Largest and Fastest-Growing Segment of the Restaurant Industry

According to the National Restaurant Association’s 2008 Restaurant Industry Forecast, restaurant industry sales are forecast to reach a record of $558 billion in 2008. This represents an increase of 4.4 percent over 2007. The limited-service segment is the largest and fastest growing with annual sales currently projected to top $204 billion*.

In addition, limited-service restaurants generally out-perform other segments regardless of swings in the U.S. economy. In fact, when the economy tightens up, consumers often trade down from more expensive casual restaurants to less expensive limited-service restaurants. It costs less for a family of four to dine at Panera or Subway than at Outback or Chili’s. As such, limited-service restaurants generally thrive during questionable economic times. And with so many fast-casual concepts offering fresh, flavorful food at moderate price points, budget-conscious consumers have a plethora of limited-service restaurant choices.

That’s why savvy foodservice marketers are allocating a larger portion of their marketing budgets toward targeting this powerful segment. The bottom line:

Limited-service restaurants have more money to spend on your products and services.

Our Market, Our Mission

QSR recognizes that vendors to this industry each bring to market a unique product, service, and/or solution that can help decision-makers improve their restaurant operations. We also understand the importance of crafting a cost-effective, integrated marketing program to spotlight those products, services and solutions to restaurant decision-makers while they are making purchasing decisions throughout the year.

QSR is committed to delivering the best strategic coverage of the restaurant industry for our subscribers. We also continue to innovate and invest in our integrated media platform to provide vendors of restaurant products and services with the smartest, most cost-effective solutions for reaching and impacting the restaurant market.

With an expanded portfolio of product offerings, QSR now provides more options for advertisers to deliver strategic marketing messages across multiple mediums throughout the year. That makes QSR an even smarter media partner in 2009.

We at QSR look forward to helping you drive sales and reinforce your position of market leadership in print, online, or face-to-face with QSR—the most effective marketing partner for today’s savviest restaurant vendors.

Use the links above to download all the information you need about advertising in QSR and affiliated products in 2008, including our full booklet of media information.