A Precursor Year The Big Three … Four and Five The Billion-Dollar Club

CHARTS By 2008 QSR 50 Rank By 2007 QSR 50 Rank By Segment By % Sales Change By 2006 Sales By 2005 Sales By Franchise Units By Company Owned Units By Total Units

SEGMENTS Burgers Sandwiches Pizza/Pasta Snack Chicken Mexican Seafood Asian

At the top, McDonald’s is certainly not acting like the mature chain many were so apt to call it several years ago. New menu offerings, better quality coffee, and a strong breakfast push brought store-level volumes and comparable store sales up 4.5 percent. Unit growth was negligible, but then again, the Plan to Win is focused on unit-level economics.

Burger King continued to climb back from its recent rough years to secure the No. 2 spot for a while longer. Fiscal 2007 (ending June 30) global comps were up 3.9 percent, the highest in more than 10 years. During the last six months of calendar year 2007, Burger King opened a net 112 stores. That’s the highest in six years and double the number from the same period the previous year.

Then there’s Wendy’s. No, I mean, Subway. That’s right: Subway finally built enough stores to break up The Big Three. Public relations coordinator Les Winograd says the company’s goal for this year is 2,800 new locations, half of which will be in international markets.

“Saturation is difficult for us to define,” Winograd says. “As we continue to grow, we find that there are many opportunities to chart new territory. We presently have almost 6,800 nontraditional locations.”

The post–Dave Thomas era has not been kind to Wendy’s. Just a couple of years ago, before Burger King got its act together, we erroneously predicted that Wendy’s might grab the No. 2 spot. Systemwide sales increased only 2 percent in 2007 after moving only 1 percent in 2006. Units declined slightly on top of a larger decrease in 2006.

Starbucks added another 1,788 stores to pass the 10,000-unit mark. That 20 percent in additional stores bumped systemwide sales up 19 percent, enough to supplant Taco Bell from the top five. The coffee chain has advanced a rank in the QSR 50 for each of the past five years. With 600 store closings planned by the end of March 2009, look for Starbuck’s to drop from its No. 5 spot next year.

Chairman Howard Schultz took the full reins in early January 2008 in the midst of declining store comps and margins. The company has scaled back U.S. growth plans, revamped upper management, and is beginning to dump some food offerings in favor of concentrating on what it does best.

But don’t expect life at the top to be as tumultuous in the 2009 QSR 50 as it was this year. Both Subway and Starbucks will probably stay put for now. That’s welcome relief for two-thirds of those formerly known as The Big Three.