Fast casual makes up just 14% of the total $223bn limited-service restaurant segment in the US, but its sales continue to outpace other operators, according to the latest research from Technomic.
The research found that fast-casual sales increased 13% in 2012, and the largest chains—those which each made more than $325m last year—did even better, growing by 16%.
It said that fast-casual restaurants continue to outperform both quick-service and full-service establishments and post strong gains even while the rest of the industry is having a more difficult time.
Looking forward, the trend is expected to continue. Whereas the compound annual growth rate for all limited-service restaurants is 4.5% (2012 through 2017), fast-casual operators are expected to grow 10%, on average, over the same period.
“Fast casual has become a $31-billion segment since Chipotle began reinventing fast food 20 years ago,” said Darren Tristano, Executive Vice President of Technomic. “Consumers today want quality offerings made quickly. Segments like burger, sandwich and Mexican have done a great job delivering on quality, fresh, gourmet, and made-on-demand offerings. There are still areas of growth in the fast-casual segment for operators to adopt these ingredients for success and become viable in the fast-casual landscape.”
Bakery cafés continued to lead all menu categories among the Top 150 fast-casual chains, with U.S. systemwide sales of $6.1bn, up more than 10%over 2011.
The Mexican and sandwich categories were second and third largest, with U.S. systemwide sales of $5.7bn and $4.4bn, respectively.
The categories that saw the fastest sales growth were sandwich (up 17%) and Asian/noodle (up 16%). The burger and sandwich clusters experienced the highest unit growth, growing outlets by 14% percent and 13%, respectively.
