Why restaurant chain franchisees are struggling right now

Why restaurant chain franchisees are struggling right now

From A Deeper Dive by Restaurant Business Magazine

April 29, 2026 · 28 min

About this episode

This episode discusses the struggles faced by restaurant franchisees, including bankruptcy and operational challenges, with insights from Austin Titus of Accurate Franchising.

Why are franchisees struggling right now? This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast A Deeper Dive features Austin Titus, the president of Accurate Franchising. Accurate Franchising is a consulting firm that works with franchisors and franchisees and so we talk about all kinds of things on this episode. We talk about struggles franchisees are having and why. Several franchisees have filed for bankruptcy and many are having challenges after a few difficult periods, with high costs and weak sales and traffic. We explain what’s happened and how operators can deal with it. Titus talks about red flags franchisees can look for when considering a franchise brand to invest in. He also talks about how emerging chains can get the right franchisees early in their history and why that’s important. We’re talking franchising 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: Austin Titus

Topics covered

  • franchising
  • restaurant industry
  • franchisee struggles
  • bankruptcy
  • emerging chains

Keywords

  • franchisees
  • bankruptcy
  • high costs
  • weak sales
  • franchise brand
  • emerging chains
  • consulting

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Accurate Franchising

More episodes of A Deeper Dive

Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the A Deeper Dive podcast page.