Why 2025 was another tough year for restaurant chains

It was another tough year in 2025. 

This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast A Deeper Dive features Joe Pawlak, the managing principal with Technomic.

Pawlak provides our annual look at the data firm’s annual Top 500 Chain Restaurant Report, which provides the best look at the state of the country’s restaurant chains.

That state was relatively weak. Pawlak discusses why last year proved to be so difficult. We also talk about some notable trends in the numbers. 

The beverage sector was big and there were some surprising numbers in that. The sandwich sector saw more shifts in market share. There was some notable movement in the Top 10 and a lot of growth was concentrated in just a few chains.

We’re talking Top 500 on A Deeper Dive so please check it out. 

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