Fastest-Growing QSR Franchise: The Secret Behind Teriyaki Madness’s Success
Asian fast food restaurant sales have quadrupled in the past 20 years — faster than any other fast-food category. Here’s why TMAD is one of the fastest-growing restaurant franchises in America.
Fastest-growing QSR categories
Three of the biggest trends right now in QSR franchises are chicken ($35 billion), Japanese food ($22 billion) and noodles ($7 billion). With Teriyaki Madness, you get to dip into all three. IBISWorld anticipates that the Japanese restaurant market alone will continue to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of nearly 5% annually through 2026.
The QSR industry continues to innovate and roll with the punches of tight labor market and will reach an estimated $317 billion in 2022, IBISWorld predicts.
In the midst of all of this, TMAD is emerging as a leader with our Seattle-style Japanese teriyaki bowls, with a focus on fresh, made-to-order food. We were ranked by Restaurant Business magazine in 2021 as the #1 Fastest-Growing Big Restaurant Chain, and we nabbed a No. 7 spot on Franchise Chatter’s 2022 list of 11 Best Asian Franchises.
Consumers are leaning toward QSR
In 2020, Deloitte surveyed 1,000 consumers about their dining preferences, and survey respondents indicated they preferred visiting the following most frequently:
- Quick service: 62.6%
- Fast casual: 52%
- Grocery store: 48.7%
- Casual dining: 40.5%
- Convenience store: 28.2%
- Fine-dining restaurant: 12.5%
- Food truck: 11.5%
One trend in high-end dining will be a twist on comfort food. Celebrity chef Maneet Chauhan, owner of Chaat in Nashville, told Food & Wine magazine, “…(W)e won’t see the traditional chicken noodle soup and mac and cheese, but I envision chefs taking it up a notch and adding a reimagined take on our favorite comfort classics.”
This future food trend trickles down to QSR franchises, too. Consider TMAD — yes, we’re a popular Asian food franchise, but we’ve taken the familiar, turned it on its side and shoveled it into a bowl. We use fresh, healthy ingredients in our customizable dishes. We play to consumers’ demand for Asian comfort food that’s been reinvented.
“For folks who have never been in restaurants,” says our fearless bearded leader Michael Haith, CEO of TMAD, “it’s a great opportunity to get a lot of training and a lot of support from folks who do have that experience.”
Consider opening an Asian fast-food franchise
Burgers and fries aren’t going away, but Asian is THE growing go-to category. We know we shouldn’t compare ourselves to others, but when we do, we can’t help but feel good about ourselves. Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, Thai and Japanese are all great cuisines, and the more they spread across the U.S., the more demand grows.
It’s a great time to consider opening an Asian food franchise. Franchise Chatter writes, “Some commentators see a period of renewed innovation and energy in the current market for Asian food. A new generation of restaurant owners are experimenting with the cuisine, whether by embracing tradition or boldly stepping away from it, exploring the possibilities of American Chinese food and its new world cousins, building on familiar dishes or creating ones of their own.”
What’s so great about Teriyaki Madness
First of all, we’re one of the most unique food franchise concepts out there, and that’s pretty great. Also, we happen to boast a $1.16 million* AUV. Perhaps we should have led with that. In addition, over 50% of our shops are owned by multi-unit owners, because our concept is relatively simple to operate and easy to scale.
Since the first TMAD shops opened in Las Vegas in the early 2000s, we’ve always focused on convenience for our customers. It’s one of the reasons we were so successful through the pandemic and grew our franchise during one of the toughest years ever for QSR. In 2020, we opened 31 locations with 25 of those opening during the pandemic! We have always stayed on the cutting edge of technology to make that convenience just as convenient for our franchisees — we’re talking apps, websites, integrated 3rd party delivery, inventory management, the works. None of these are things you can acquire easily as an independent restaurant owner, and not every QSR franchise keeps up as well as we do.
TMAD encompasses many of the trending restaurant categories with huge bowls of awesomeness for our customers. They’re huge bowls of happy for our franchise owners, too, as they’re enjoying steakhouse returns for a ramen investment.
We’ll keep up the phenomenal growth in both popularity and franchise units. You bring your leadership skills, your $150,000 in cash and your net worth of $500,000. Download our Franchise Report to get the ball rolling. Let’s do this.
* Refer to our Franchise Disclosure Document