Why 2025 was another tough year for restaurant chains

Why 2025 was another tough year for restaurant chains

From A Deeper Dive by Restaurant Business Magazine

April 23, 2026 · 30 min

About this episode

Joe Pawlak discusses the challenges faced by restaurant chains in 2025 and highlights key trends from the Top 500 Chain Restaurant Report.

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. Want more from Jonathan Maze? https://www.restaurantbusinessonline.com/profile/jonathan-maze Tik-Tok @jonathandmaze https://www.restaurantbusinessonline.com/article/week-restaurants Subscribe to RB newsletters: https://www.restaurantbusinessonline.com/newsletters

People in this episode

Guest: Joe Pawlak

Topics covered

  • restaurant industry
  • market trends
  • chain restaurants
  • financial performance
  • beverage sector
  • sandwich sector

Keywords

  • restaurant chains
  • 2025
  • market share
  • Top 500
  • Technomic
  • beverage sector
  • sandwich sector

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Technomic, Restaurant Business

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