Entrepreneur Franchise 500 list rank: 2
Started franchising: 1964
Total units: 7,136
Initial franchise cost: $525,500 to $2.96 million
A decade ago, Taco Bell was ranked as the No. 45 business on the Franchise 500. Today, it’s ranked second in large part due to the growth the company has seen in the interim. Even in the past two years, the fast-food business has seen sales grow 6 percent, to $11 billion, in 2018, and as of the third quarter of 2019, it was projected to improve same-store sales (5 percent) and overall sales (8 percent) again.
The key to this growth, as the newest issue of the magazine points out, is the company’s focus on convenience, which includes a POS system directly integrated into the Grubhub app and 4,800 U.S. location offering delivery.
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