Food franchises may have faced their most challenging year ever in 2020, but they still dominate the franchise landscape. Almost a quarter of the 1,116 companies that applied for the 2021 Franchise 500 were food-related brands. And while the pandemic definitely impacted all of them, many didn’t just survive 2020 but actually thrived and found ways to make their businesses stronger, more flexible, and more successful than ever.
On the following pages, you’ll find the top 200 food franchises, ranked within their respective categories, from acai bowls and candy stores to pizza and sports bars. The rankings reflect how each company scored in the Franchise 500, based on an evaluation of more than 150 data points in the areas of costs and fees, size and growth, franchisee support, brand strength,…
