Published insights

Darden is the anti-franchisor: its $13 billion in revenue is its actual scale

Darden owns and operates its restaurants, so its $13.2B in FY2026 revenue is its actual scale — the company-operated mirror image of a franchisor's system-sales gap. The clean yardstick for company-operated revenue.

How to read restaurant same-store sales — and why most coverage gets it wrong

Same-store sales is the most-quoted number in restaurant earnings and the most misread. A comp is a traffic effect times a price-and-mix effect — decompose it into transactions and check before you judge the business. The analyst's lens, with worked examples from Starbucks, McDonald's, and Darden.

Why McDonald's rings up $139 billion but books $27 billion — reading the franchisor gap

A franchisor's system sales and its revenue are two completely different things — and the gap between them is the franchise model itself. How $139B of customer spending becomes $27B of McDonald's revenue, why Domino's ratio is higher (supply chain), and the cross-basis comparison that misleads everyone.

Who really owns “China”? How global restaurant brands operate in their biggest market — and why HQ's numbers mislead

Five of the biggest Western restaurant brands in China — KFC/Pizza Hut, McDonald's, Starbucks, Burger King, Domino's — and not one is a wholly-owned, HQ-operated business. The discipline that keeps you from misreading all of them: the footprint belongs to the operator, the royalty belongs to HQ, and the two must never be stacked.

Sysco's $29 billion Restaurant Depot deal: sizing the distribution backbone beneath every restaurant

Sysco is buying Restaurant Depot's parent for ~$29.1B — the largest deal in its history, in the invisible distribution layer beneath every restaurant. A distributor is sized by revenue and share, not operator metrics; and the price isn't Sysco's scale.

The China restaurant IPO wave: which models win, and the numbers that mislead

The 2026 China F&B Hong Kong IPO wave is record-breaking and sharply split — Mixue +130%, Nayuki −94%. A caliber framework for reading it: the franchise rate decides the basis, and the subscription multiple decides nothing.

Five IPO attempts, one model in transition: reading Lao Xiang Ji's Hong Kong filing

Lao Xiang Ji (老乡鸡), China's largest home-style fast-food chain, has filed for Hong Kong — its 3rd HKEX try and 5th IPO attempt in four years. A ¥6.3B chain quietly migrating from company-operated to franchised, so its scale basis is in motion.

The marketing layer behind 10,000 restaurants: Zaihui's IPO, and why a platform's size is its revenue — not the GMV it moves

Zaihui (再惠) filed for a Hong Kong + Singapore dual listing as China's largest restaurant marketing-and-operations platform — serving 10,000+ brands. A demand-side platform, sized by revenue (~¥449M, 9M 2025), not the merchant GMV it moves.

Chipotle owns every restaurant — so its $11.9B has nowhere to hide

Chipotle franchises nothing, so its $11.9 billion FY2025 revenue is the whole system — the cleanest scale read in big quick-service, and the one with the least cover.

Domino's runs a $20 billion pizza system — and is really a $5 billion logistics company

The Domino's brand sells $20.1 billion of pizza, but the company that owns it books just $4.94 billion — and most of that is dough, not royalties. A franchise system read on the right basis.

The flavor behind 130,000 restaurants: Juhui's IPO, and how to size a foodservice supplier — not an operator

Juhui (聚慧餐调) filed for a Hong Kong IPO as China's first foodservice-seasoning-customization stock — the custom-seasoning supplier behind 130,000+ restaurants. A B2B supplier, sized by revenue (~¥1.1B), not operator metrics.

Starbucks sold control of China — and changed what its $37 billion in revenue means

Starbucks reported $37.18 billion in FY2025 — but that number blends company-operated sales, licensing income, and packaged goods, and selling control of China is about to change the recipe.

Yum sells Pizza Hut: a declining brand, a thriving China business, and the numbers behind a $2.7 billion split

Yum! is selling Pizza Hut for ~$2.7B — ex-China to PE firm LongRange (~$1.5B), China to Yum China (~$1.2B). One deal, three numbers that aren't interchangeable, and two Pizza Huts moving in opposite directions.

Jollibee Foods: a 19-brand group, sized in pesos — $7.9 billion, with the per-brand split left honestly blank

Jollibee Foods is a 19-brand group whose FY2025 system-wide sales are ₱455.111B ≈ $7.914B (FX-converted, estimated). The per-brand SWS split is not cleanly sourced, so FoodBud leaves it null rather than back-derive it.

Chick-fil-A's $9-million stores: what a private giant's franchise filings reveal — and what they don't

Inspire Brands' ~$33 billion spans six brands — but it's private, and it's not everything Roark owns

Inspire Brands is the 2nd-largest U.S. restaurant group — six brands locked at FY2024 $32.6B because it reconciles exactly to the six-brand build-up. Private (estimated, not audited), a group not a brand, and only one node under Roark Capital.

McDonald's 45,356 restaurants are a footprint, not a revenue — and the company is really a landlord

McDonald's 45,356 restaurants and $139.4B in systemwide sales are the brand's reach — the company books just $26.9B, most of it rent. The archetype of the franchise-footprint lesson.

RBI's $46.8 billion splits into four brands — but the company keeps just $9.4 billion

Restaurant Brands International's four brands — Burger King, Tim Hortons, Popeyes, Firehouse Subs — rang up $46.762B in systemwide sales, but RBI the company booked just $9.434B. The brand split ties exactly to the parent (additive: false).

Two tickers, one footprint: why Yum! Brands and Yum China can't be added together

Yum! Brands runs 63,000+ restaurants across KFC, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and Habit — 97% franchised — and the China slice belongs to separately listed Yum China. Two tickers, one footprint, never added together.

Japan's biggest restaurant company is a conglomerate — so you size Zensho by its food segments, not its total

Zensho is Japan's largest restaurant company and a vertically integrated conglomerate — so its scale is the foodservice-segment net sales (¥1,140,725m FY2026 ≈ $7.571B screening proxy), not its consolidated total, converted at the FY2026 period-average yen.