Restaurant chains from quick-service to casual-dining continued to grow same-store sales in the latest quarter even as challenges from inflation to labor shortages to the ongoing pandemic continued to hit the industry — and luckily, companies are optimistic about those battles going into 2022.
Chains including Wingstop, The Cheesecake Factory and Shake Shack have been forced to plan menu price increases amid inflation and supply-chain shortages, some for the second or even third time. Wingstop CFO Alex Kaleida did say that the company believes the worst of the wing shortage and inflation is in the past, which could bode well for restaurants industry-wide.
Meanwhile, the omicron variant and labor shortage continue to wreak havoc, though they did not slow restaurants down too much. And sales weren’t the only measure to grow: Yum Brands accelerated development in 2021, opening a record 3,057 net new units during the year while growing same-store sales at all four of its brands in the latest quarter.
To read more about recent restaurant earnings reports and how companies are dealing with 2022’s challenges, click through this gallery.