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ATLANTA—There doesn't seem to be a slowdown in the expansion of fast-casual restaurants.
Moe's Southwest Grill just announced that it signed a record 120 new franchise deals in the first half of the year, with new markets to include Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, Houston, Pittsburgh and Salt Lake City. Major expansion is taking place in Northern California and Las Vegas.
Most interesting is that the deals include both existing and new franchisees.
“This is an exciting time to be a part of Moe's; the high-level franchise partners we are attracting not only see Moe's as a quality brand to add to their portfolios, but genuinely want to grow with the company,” said Paul Damico, president of Moe's Southwest Grill in the announcement. “The success we've experienced in the first half of 2014 gives us great momentum to build on for the rest of the year as we continue to expand and position ourselves as a national brand.”
Restaurant expansion continued over the last year, with those chains' units increasing 2.3 percent over last year, the best performance since before the recession, according to Nation's Restaurant News' 2014 annual Top 100 report. But revenue growth slowed, the proprietary report says, with sales per unit rising 1.1 percent, vs. 3.7 percent last year.
Could we be hitting an expansion wall?
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