The Top 25 foodservice companies based outside of the United States and Canada in 2013 continued to close the sales gap on their still considerably larger North American rivals, achieving that feat with a significantly higher average rate of growth.
The International Top 25 roster, led by 7-Eleven-parent Seven & i Holdings Co. Ltd., had aggregate calendar 2013 worldwide systemwide sales from proprietary concepts of $66.8 billion, which represented growth of 8.0 percent from 2012’s $61.9 billion in sales, according to research by Euromonitor International. The International Top 25 achieved growth in aggregate sales of 5.5 percent in 2012.
In comparison, the Top 25 companies based in the United State and Canada, led by Oakbrook, Ill.-based McDonald’s Corp., had aggregate worldwide systemwide sales from all concepts of $291.1 billion, in their latest completed fiscal years, up 3.2 percent. That result represented a slow down in growth from 5.2 percent in the preceding year, Nation’s Restaurant News research indicated.
Much of the drag on that group’s sales was tied to slower growth at the two largest companies, McDonald’s Corp. and Yum! Brands Inc.
The four convenience-store specialists in this year’s International Top 25 continued to prove foodservice powerhouses in the markets where they compete. That quartet – Seven & i Holdings, FamilyMart Co. Ltd., Lawson Inc. and AEON Co. Ltd. – generated a full 42 percent of the Top 25 companies’ combined 2013 sales, with accelerating average year-over-year growth in worldwide sales in 2013 of 7.7 percent.
The fastest-growing company for 2013, Tokyo-based Skylark Group benefitted, in part, from easy year over-year comparison, as restructuring activities at some brands led to sales losses in 2012, as well as from consumer interest in new products, Euromonitor said.
Update: Dec. 18, 2014 This article has been revised to reflect corrected aggregate latest-year sales and year-over-year growth in aggregate sales for the Top 25 U.S.-Canada companies.
Contact Alan J. Liddle at [email protected].
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