If an ambitious growth plan goes as planned, a new steakhouse may open near you—especially if you live in a smaller town.
Last week, Texas Roadhouse revealed intentions to expand to 900 U.S. sites. The steakhouse business has 596 outlets and was aiming for 700 or 800, but sales have soared.
The firm brought in over $3.7 billion in 2021, making it the fourth largest casual-dining franchise after Olive Garden ($4.2 billion), Applebee's ($4.2 billion), and
Buffalo Wild Wings ($3.7 billion). The chicken wing chain just beat out the steakhouse for third place, despite having 1,212 outlets.
Texas Roadhouse had the greatest casual-dining average unit volume at $6 million. At 900 sites, the business could earn $5.4 billion yearly and lead casual dining.
Applebee's and Olive Garden have delayed national expansion in recent years, helping Texas Roadhouse.
Applebee's has lost 15% of its U.S. locations during 2016, while Olive Garden has gained 4.3%.
The steakhouse brand was founded in 1993 and initially targeted medium-sized cities. In the past decade, the brand expanded into 40,000 to 60,000-person cities.
"We changed that figure because we saw the upside, and the performance in some of the smaller areas actually allowed us to boost that number," CEO stated last week.