KFC Corporation, doing business as KFC, is an American fast food restaurant chain that specializes in fried chicken. Headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky, it is the world's second-largest restaurant chain after McDonald's, with over 30,000 locations globally in 150 countries as of April 2024. The chain is a subsidiary of Yum! Brands, a restaurant company that also owns the Pizza Hut and Taco Bell chains.
Burger King Corporation is an American multinational chain of hamburger fast food restaurants. Headquartered in Miami-Dade County, Florida, the company was founded in 1953 as Insta-Burger King, a Jacksonville, Florida–based restaurant chain. After Insta-Burger King ran into financial difficulties, its two Miami-based franchisees David Edgerton (1927–2018) and James McLamore (1926–1996) purchased the company in 1959. Over the next half-century, the company changed hands four times and its third set of owners, a partnership between TPG Capital, Bain Capital, and Goldman Sachs Capital Partners, took it public in 2002. In late 2010, 3G Capital of Brazil acquired a majority stake in the company in a deal valued at US$3.26 billion. The new owners promptly initiated a restructuring of the company to reverse its fortunes. 3G, along with its partner Berkshire Hathaway, eventually merged the company with the Canadian-based coffeehouse chain Tim Hortons under the auspices of a new Canadian-based parent company named Restaurant Brands International.
Red Rooster is an Australian fast food chain. It sells roast chicken alongside common fast food items, such as burgers, chips, salads, and beverages. Since 2021, it has offered fried chicken.
Whataburger is an American regional fast food restaurant chain, headquartered and based in San Antonio, Texas, that specializes in hamburgers. Founded by Harmon Dobson and Paul Burton, it opened its first restaurant in Corpus Christi, Texas in 1950. Family-owned by the Dobsons until 2019, the chain is now managed by the private equity firm BDT & MSD Partners; the Dobson family still holds a small stake.
In-N-Out Burgers, doing business as In-N-Out Burger, is an American regional chain of fast food restaurants with locations primarily in California and to a lesser extent the Southwest from Oregon to Texas. It was founded in Baldwin Park, California, in 1948 by Harry (1913–1976) and Esther Snyder (1920–2006). The chain is headquartered in Irvine, California, and has expanded outside Southern California into the rest of California, as well as into Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Texas, Oregon, Colorado, and Idaho, and is planning expansions into New Mexico and Tennessee. The current owner is Lynsi Snyder, the Snyders' only grandchild.
Boston Market Corporation, known as Boston Chicken until 1995, is an American fast casual restaurant chain headquartered in Newtown Township, Pennsylvania. Since 2020, it has been owned by Engage Brands, LLC, a company of Rohan Group. From 1985 to 1995, Boston Market was known as Boston Chicken, which rapidly expanded to over a thousand locations. By the late 1990s, the chain filed for bankruptcy and closed many stores until a few hundred remained. McDonald's purchased the chain in 2000. It was sold again in 2007, then in 2020. As of November 2020, the chain had approximately 342 company-owned restaurant locations in 28 states and Puerto Rico. In the 2020s the chain encountered legal troubles and went into a rapid decline to end 2024 with only 16 remaining stores. At its peak, Boston Market had its greatest presence in the Northeastern and Midwestern United States, as well as California, Florida, and Texas.
Krystal is an American regional fast food restaurant chain headquartered in Dunwoody, Georgia, with restaurants in the Southeastern United States and Puerto Rico. It is known for its small, square hamburgers, called sliders in places other than the Southeast, with steamed-in onions. Krystal moved its headquarters from Chattanooga, Tennessee, where it had been based since 1932, to the Atlanta suburb of Dunwoody in early 2013.
Church's Texas Chicken is an American fast food restaurant chain that specializes in fried chicken and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. The chain was founded as Church's Fried Chicken To-Go by George W. Church Sr. in April 1952, in San Antonio, Texas, across the street from The Alamo. Church's Texas Chicken trades as Texas Chicken or Church's Chicken in many countries. The chain is owned by American private equity firm High Bluff Capital Partners. As of 2017, Church's Texas Chicken had more than 1,700 franchised and company-owned locations in 26 countries.
Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen, Inc. is an American multinational chain of fried chicken restaurants founded in 1972 in New Orleans and headquartered in Miami. It is currently a subsidiary of Toronto-based Restaurant Brands International. As of 2021, Popeyes has 3,705 restaurants, which are located in more than 46 states and the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and 30 countries worldwide. About 50 locations are company-owned; the other ~98% are franchised.
Captain Ds, LLC. is an American fast casual restaurant chain that specializes in seafood and is headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee. The chain was founded as Mr. D's Seafood and Hamburgers by Raymond L. Danner Sr. on August 15, 1969, in Donelson, Tennessee. The chain is currently owned by private-equity firm Centre Partners. Captain D's currently has more than 500 locations in the United States.
Rubio's Coastal Grill, formerly known as Rubio's Fresh Mexican Grill and Rubio's Baja Grill, is an American fast casual "Fresh Mex" or "New Mex" restaurant chain specializing in Mexican food, with an emphasis on fish tacos. As of 2024, Rubio's operates, licenses, or franchises 85 restaurants. 17 restaurants in Arizona, 62 in Southern California, and 6 in Nevada. It previously had locations in northern California, Colorado, Florida and Utah. The chain announced store closings and a bankruptcy filing the same year with plans to sell itself to lenders. It is headquartered in Carlsbad, California. At one time, the company had as many as 196 restaurants through the United States by the end of 2016.
Grandy's Country Cookin' is a homestyle cooking and comfort food restaurant chain based in Nashville, Tennessee.
Chicken Treat is a fast food restaurant chain that primarily operates in Western Australia. As of March 2023, Chicken Treat has over 60 outlets within Western Australia. The company provides a range of rotisserie chicken, fried chicken, and burger meals. Chicken Treat also offers catering services for families, groups, and businesses. It is owned by Hong Kong–based private equity firm PAG Asia Capital.
Chicken Licken is a South African fast-food fried chicken restaurant chain. The company had a 5% share of South Africa's fast food market in 2010, tying with McDonald's. According to a case study published by the Henny Penny Corporation in 2011, Chicken Licken is the "largest non-American-owned fried chicken franchise in the world".[
KFC was founded by Colonel Harland Sanders, an entrepreneur who began selling fried chicken from his roadside restaurant in Corbin, Kentucky, during the Great Depression. Sanders identified the potential of restaurant franchising, and the first "Kentucky Fried Chicken" franchise opened in Salt Lake County, Utah, in 1952. KFC popularized chicken in the fast-food industry, diversifying the market by challenging the established dominance of the hamburger. Branding himself "Colonel Sanders", the founder became a prominent figure of American cultural history, and his image remains widely used in KFC advertising. The company's rapid expansion made it too large for Sanders to manage, so in 1964 he sold the company to a group of investors led by John Y. Brown Jr. and Jack C. Massey.
Chicken George was a fast food restaurant chain based in Baltimore, Maryland. The first restaurant was established by Theodore Holmes in November 1979 in the Mondawmin Mall in Baltimore. The company later expanded to a total of six restaurants in Baltimore, and also branched out to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Washington D.C. Franchise restaurants were also existent in Atlanta, Los Angeles and in other cities. In September 1991, the company filed for bankruptcy to be dissolved.
Scotty's Brewhouse was a chain of restaurants and breweries in Indiana. There are Scotty's Brewhouse's located in 7 cities in Indiana. Locations outside of Indiana include Oxford Ohio, Poplar Bluff Missouri, Champaign Illinois and Mattoon Illinois.
El Pollo Loco, Inc., is a restaurant chain based in the United States, specializing in Mexican-style grilled chicken. Restaurant service consists of: dine-in and take-out, with some locations offering drive-through options. The company is headquartered in Costa Mesa, California, and operates about 500 company-owned and franchised restaurants in the Southwestern United States.
US$231 Million (2021)
