Fast Casual Industry: A Competitive Analysis

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Industry Rivalry Each year Technomic releases the “Fast Casual Top 100 Report.” They track 344 chains to get to sales of $21-$22 billion. Technomic’s Darren Tristano believes that the future of fast casual will not be slowing down anytime soon, in fact in terms of sales, the top 100 fast-casual chains accounted for $18.86 billion, which is the equivalent of 85-90% of the estimated $21-$22 billion in the market (Green, 2011.) The top five chains accounted for 40% of the sales of the top 100 and only the top three had sales of over $1 billion and 62 of the chains had less than $100 million in sales. This does not mean that the industry is going to tank or take a turn for the worst – it survived the economic downturn and will continue to grow …show more content…

Millennials are leading a change in the way food and foodservice are being shifted. The Baby Boomer generation are not as concerned with new fads, such as eating fresh and organic, but rather like to go with what they are familiar with, such as Red Lobster. Red Lobster has for the most part stayed true to their brand since opening in 1968, and for the baby boomer this is not an issue but for millennials it is a huge hurtle. Bob Goldin, Executive VP of Red Lobster stated “Most Millennials would rather starve than be caught in any of those places “(Horovitz, 2014). Millennials are looking for innovation and fresh, less processed foods. Historically it should be millennials that make up the largest percentage of restaurant goers, but the current trend is the 50+ crowd (McLynn, 2015). If fast casual restaurants want to capture the millennial market share, they will need to continue to invent new and fresh menu items that appeal to the …show more content…

In order for any restaurant to keep up, they have to be willing to learn and implement instead of sitting back and expecting repeat customers for a location with menu options that never change to accommodate its customers. When a restaurant thinks bigger, acts quicker, and moves faster they are more likely to stay ahead of their competition. Sanjiv Rasdan (2016), Senior VP of operations for Applebee’s USA, points out three key opportunities that he believes are key to this strategy: food, experience and environment, and keeping ahead with

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