TL;DR
A&W ranked fourth on QSR Magazine's Top 42 Emerging Fast-Food Brands to Watch in 2021 due to its resilience and success during the pandemic. The brand saw its ninth year of consecutive growth with a 9% increase in year-over-year sales in 2020.
QSR Magazine published a roundup of the Top 42 Emerging Fast Food Brands to Watch in 2021, in which A&W ranked fourth thanks to its resilience and success throughout the pandemic.
Established in 1919, A&W is a classic American brand with 500-plus locations across the country, including more than 300 standalone restaurants. In 2020, the brand saw its ninth year of consecutive growth with a 9% increase in year-over-year sales and wrapped up Q2 with 14 new restaurant agreements and another 20 in the pipeline.
“Our development team and our dedicated franchisees did a great job facing the challenges of the pandemic and seeing exceptional growth despite all of the uncertainty COVID-19 brought to the restaurant industry,” said Kevin Bazner, CEO of A&W. “We’ve seen tremendous growth over the past year alone because of our commitment to seeing our franchisees succeed.”
The 102-year-old brand, which is literally older than sliced bread, remains a one-of-a-kind true original and still handcrafts its signature A&W Root Beer in its restaurants.
In this story
This story was originally published in 1851 Franchise on October 11, 2021. Burnaze summarizes and links to the original reporting.
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