America's Top-Grossing Restaurants: CHD Expert Identifies Restaurants with Over $5M in Annual Sales

CHICAGO - Feb. 28, 2017 - PRLog -- On February 16, 2017 countless restaurants across the USA shut their doors or served limited menus for the day, as a result of the "Day without immigrants" protest.  According to the National Restaurant Association, 23% of restaurant employees are foreign born, which out indexes other industries. While revenue impact for businesses affected by the protest is still to be determined, management is certainly paying attention to future challenges for human labor, especially at the nations highest grossing restaurants.

As of February 2017, CHD Expert has data on more than 699,000 restaurants in the United States. Of these, more than 2,400 are restaurants that earn over $5 million in annual sales; this is less than one percent of American restaurants. However there are locations across the nation where high grossing restaurants are more prevalent in the landscape, for example 1.42% of Washington DC restaurants gross more than $5M annually, as do 1.36% of restaurants in Nevada.  Almost half (49%) of the of the nations restaurants that gross $5M+ are located in 5 states: California, Texas, Florida, New York, and Illinois. Nevada is 6^th on the list, with 100 such restaurants, and DC has 33. Wyoming, Montana and Vermont are the only states without such a high grossing location.

Approximately 34 percent of all restaurants with over $5 million in annual sales are classified as Independent. (CHD Expert considers a restaurant independent when it has 9 or fewer locations in operation.) The top five chains in terms of number of units, and their market share of the chain restaurant market that gross $5M+ are Cheesecake Factory (12%), Olive Garden (8%), BJ's Restaurant & Brewhouse (8%), Yard House (4%), and Maggiano's Little Italy (3%).

Of the restaurants that gross over $5M annually, over 90% are classified as Full Service Restaurants (FSR), of which 34% are Independent.  Of these FSRs, the segmentation is as follows: 3% Family-style, 64% Casual Dining, 15% Upscale Dining, 18% Fine Dining.

There are also a handful of Limited Service Restaurants (LSRs) who also gross more than $5M annually, of which 29% are Independent.

Two notable high grossing LSRs, who are taking the nation by storm, are Portillo's and Shake Shack. While both are smaller chains with each having less than 100 units in operation (in the USA, Shake Shack has rapidly expanded in EMEA and Asia) both have a substantial percentage of their locations grossing more than $5M annually, which is unprecedented for LSRs.

Total LSRs that gross more than $5M annually are broken down into the following segments:  18% Quick Service, 62% Fast Casual, 6% LSR Beverages (Ice cream, coffee shops/tea houses, smoothie/juice), 13% Buffet, and 1% Delivery & take-away only.

FSRs are defined as locations with table service where the bill is paid after the meal is consumed, compared to LSRs, which generally offer counter service and the bill is paid when the food is being handed over.

  These 2,400 high grossing restaurants, have an average unit sales volume of approximately $7,550,000 which is almost 10x greater than the national average of $790,000. This gives these high grossing operators a lot more cash to spend on goods, including Food, Beverages, and Disposables.

"For those distributors, manufactures, and foodservice providers who sell direct to restaurants, the ability to identify and target high revenue operators is invaluable," said Catherine Kearns, General Manager at CHD Expert The Americas. "When we produce this annual list, it is highly coveted by our customers who want to streamline their sales and marketing efforts to the operator."

CHD Expert evaluated the most recent data within its foodservice database and packaged the most interesting facts and figures into an infographic designed to help foodservice industry professionals better understand the high revenue restaurant landscape.

To access the 2017 America's Top-Grossing Restaurants Infographic in its entirety, please visit: http://info.chd-expert.com/chd-expert-americas-top-grossi...

To purchase a comprehensive list of these 2,400 high grossing operators, complete with contact information, please contact sales@chd-expert.com.

About CHD North America

For 20 years, CHD Expert has been the global leader in collecting, managing, and analyzing data for the Away-From-Home Foodservice Market. With over 5 Million operator records across 50 countries, CHD Expert helps organizations understand the foodservice industry landscape and leverage data to drive revenue.

Our service offerings range from providing raw data to turn key solutions, including: data records and analysis via attribute and segmentation filter combinations; call center solutions for foodservice market research, lead generation and appointment setting; email and direct mail campaigns, ad hoc reports on any foodservice region or segment, access to foodservice supply chain members from manufacturers to end users.

  For additional information, please visit http://www.chd-expert.com or call 1-888-243-0154.