---
title: "2017 Dominators"
url: https://burnaze.com/article/17581bf4-ae67-4f9d-b5e1-37ea8cefb608
source: "Franchising.com"
original_url: https://www.franchising.com/articles/2017_dominators.html
author: "Multi-Unit Franchisee"
category: "Franchise Industry"
industry: "Franchise Industry"
topics: ["Development & multi-unit"]
published: 2017-11-03T07:00:00.000Z
modified: 2026-11-01T04:13:27.837Z
image: https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1497366216548-37526070297c?w=1600&q=80&auto=format&fit=crop
---

# 2017 Dominators

**TL;DR:** Multi-unit, multi-brand operators continue to expand through acquisitions and new unit openings, creating historically large franchisee organizations. Today's Dominators are sophisticated, savvy, and experienced at managing organizations with hundreds of units.

*By Multi-Unit Franchisee, originally published in Franchising.com on 2017-11-03. [Read the original](https://www.franchising.com/articles/2017_dominators.html).*

## Story

Multi-unit, multi-brand operators continue expanding each year--a trend that continues to accelerate as these "Dominators" grow their portfolios through acquisitions, building new units, refranchising, and scooping up successful units from retiring franchisees. Banking on their good credit, solid infrastructure, and track record, today's Dominators are creating historically large franchisee organizations, as the rankings from FRANdata demonstrate. And they keep on getting bigger every year.

Today's Dominators are sophisticated, savvy, and experienced at managing organizations with hundreds of units, often spread across several states. They also understand that success is all about unit economics: one customer and one sale at a time. They create jobs by the hundreds and thousands, hiring young employees and providing a career path for them to grow, and they do business with local suppliers--lots of them.

And they give back to their communities on a large scale, encouraging their employees to support local organizations and charities. No franchisee gets to the top without years of hard work, sacrifice, perseverance, and an unwavering desire to be the best. Congratulations to this year's Dominators!

C., Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands) MSA Franchised Units New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island, NY-NJ-CT-PA 19,017 Los Angeles-Riverside-Orange County, CA 18,814 Chicago-Gary-Kenosha, IL-IN-WI 11,901 Washington-Baltimore, DC-MD-VA-WV 11,001 Dallas-Fort Worth, TX 9,504 Houston-Galveston-Brazoria, TX 8,080 San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose, CA 8,028 Atlanta, GA 7,816 Boston-Worcester-Lawrence, MA-NH-ME-CT 7,791 Philadelphia-Wilmington-Atlantic City, PA-NJ-DE-MD 6,959 Detroit-Ann Arbor-Flint, MI 6,342 Phoenix-Mesa, AZ 5,560 Seattle-Tacoma-Bremerton, WA 5,073 Minneapolis-St Paul, MN-WI 5,027 Miami-Fort Lauderdale, FL 4,505 Denver-Boulder-Greeley, CO 4,394 Tampa-St Petersburg-Clearwater, FL 4,017 San Diego, CA 3,964 St Louis, MO-IL 3,775 Charlotte-Gastonia-Rock Hill, NC-SC 3,399 Portland-Salem, OR-WA 3,332 Orlando, FL 3,312 Cleveland-Akron, OH 3,150 Sacramento-Yolo, CA 3,011 Indianapolis, IN 2,996 Cincinnati-Hamilton, OH-KY-IN 2,933 Las Vegas, NV-AZ 2,845 San Antonio, TX 2,772 Kansas City, MO-KS 2,769 Austin-San Marcos, TX 2,702 Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill, NC 2,688 Pittsburgh, PA 2,680 Norfolk-Virginia Beach-Newport News, VA-NC 2,639 Nashville, TN 2,492 Columbus, OH 2,413 Milwaukee-Racine, WI 2,393 Jacksonville, FL 2,102 Salt Lake City-Ogden, UT 2,043 Hartford, CT 1,968 Oklahoma City, OK 1,889 Richmond-Petersburg, VA 1,858 West Palm Beach-Boca Raton, FL 1,795 Greensboro-Winston-Salem-High Point, NC 1,769 Greenville-Spartanburg-Anderson, SC 1,719 Louisville, KY-IN 1,697 New Orleans, LA 1,562 Memphis, TN-AR-MS 1,540 Knoxville, TN 1,456 Grand Rapids-Muskegon-Holland, MI 1,439 Birmingham, AL 1,396 Omaha, NE-IA 1,301 Dayton-Springfield, OH 1,261 Tulsa, OK 1,259 Tucson, AZ 1,191 Charleston-North Charleston, SC 1,185 Buffalo-Niagara Falls, NY 1,171 Rochester, NY 1,165 Albuquerque, NM 1,150 Columbia, SC 1,147 Little Rock-North Little Rock, AR 1,123 Sarasota-Bradenton, FL 1,109 Fresno, CA 1,099 Albany-Schenectady-Troy, NY 1,038 Fort Myers-Cape Coral, FL 1,012 Largest Franchisees by State State (and D.C) Largest Franchisee Units Alabama Tacala LLC/Boom Foods LLC 110 Alaska Subway Development of Alaska 26 Arizona Hot Tacos Inc 79 Arkansas K-MAC Enterprises Inc 99 California Southern California Pizza 261 Colorado Harman Management Corp 88 Connecticut Northeast Foods LLC 33 Delaware Ryan S Group Inc; Mitra QSR KNE LLC; Nickolas Nistazos 15 Dist.

## Entities

- Franchising.com (publication)
- unit expansion (topic)
- Franchise Industry (sector)
- Multi-Unit (company)
- Multi-Unit Franchisee (person)
- FRANdata (company)
- multi-brand operators (topic)
- franchisee organizations (topic)

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Originally reported by Multi-Unit Franchisee, Franchising.com (https://www.franchising.com/articles/2017_dominators.html). Summarized by Burnaze (https://burnaze.com/article/17581bf4-ae67-4f9d-b5e1-37ea8cefb608).