QSR Magazine: The Restaurant Industry’s 9 Best Franchise Deals

When it comes to finding the right franchise opportunity, there’s no shortage of factors for prospective local owners to consider before officially making their investment. But according to an article in QSR Magazine, franchisees typically focus their attention on analyzing two key categories.

The first category is made up of the objective elements that come with owning a franchise. Between key financial metrics—including startup costs, sales trends and return on investment—and corporate support systems, training and unit growth, local owners take a look at the overall health of a brand’s system before signing on the dotted line. The second category, on the other hand, includes more subjective elements, including whether or not existing franchisees are happy, industry trends and the relationship between the franchisor and its franchisees.

Eric Stites, CEO and managing director of Franchise Business Review, told QSR Magazine, “The reality is that the financials always have to work for any franchise model to be successful, but it’s also true that many of the most successful franchisors have established themselves as true, empathetic partners who understand the human side of the business just as well as the numbers.”

When those objective and subjective sides of a franchise opportunity collide, a brand’s opportunity really stands out. That’s why QSR Magazine teamed up with Franchise Business Review to release its seventh annual Best Franchise Deals, highlighting the 9 restaurant concepts that offer the most compelling business ownership opportunities. The list includes major brands like Arby’s, which is currently building on 35 consecutive quarters of same-store sales growth, and Checkers* & Rally’s, which boasts six years of same-store sales gains and AUV that tops $1.2 million.

Other brands included in QSR Magazine’s ranking of the 9 Best Franchise Deals include Zoup!, a 20-year-old fast casual brand that offers franchisees a simplified menu and lifestyle hours, and Smoothie King, which saw average annual sales per store climb 51 percent between 2011 and 2016. Captain D’s, Donatos Pizza, Kona Ice, Penn Station East Coast Subs and Wingstop also earned spots on the publication’s annual list.

To read the original article, click here.