Expansions and acquisitions drove a big sales gain at Orange County’s biggest restaurant chains last year.
The 20 chains, which run the gamut from fancy steak houses to pizza joints to take-out taco eateries, recorded $5 billion in sales in 2005, up 15% from a year earlier.
The sales gain for the chains would have been 8% if No. 2 Cypress-based Real Mex Restaurants was factored out. Real Mex made a major acquisition last year, pushing its sales up 157% to $534 million.
But OC chains still outpaced overall growth at U.S. restaurants, which recorded a 5% gain last year, according to the Washington, D.C.-based National Restaurant Association.
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The list’s chains employed 14,000 workers in OC, up 6% from a year earlier.
No. 1 Taco Bell Corp. in Irvine again dominated the list. The Mexican fast-food chain accounted for more than a third of all revenue by the 20 chains on the list.
Taco Bell, a unit of Louisville, Ky.-based Yum Brands Inc., had a 6% rise in sales to $1.8 billion, versus a year earlier.
The company has had a strong start to 2006. Taco Bell’s first-quarter sales at restaurants open at least a year jumped 8%, outpacing growth at Yum’s other chains,KFC, up 5%, and Pizza Hut, down 1%.
Yum plans to open nearly 400 restaurants by 2008 in China and 700 in its international divisions.
Mexican fast-food chain Taco Bell boosted OC employment by 8% to about 2,197 workers during the past year.
The top mover on the list was Real Mex, the operator of El Torito, Acapulco and Chevys restaurants.
Real Mex moved to OC from Long Beach last year.
The company’s sales more than doubled to $534 million after it bought the Chevys and Fuzio Universal Pasta chains last year. Real Mex moved up from the No. 8 spot last year on the revenue gain.
Earlier this year Real Mex said it was looking at “strategic alternatives” that could lead to a sale of the company. New York-based Bruckmann, Rosser, Sherrill & Co. and Jefferies & Co. own about two-thirds of Real Mex.
No. 3 Irvine-based In-N-Out Burgers Inc. had an eventful year.
The Business Journal estimated the burger chain’s sales grew 5% to $395 million on the opening of 10 or so locations. In-N-Out has 202 restaurants, including about 20 in OC.
The normally secretive chain made some headlines,a boardroom battle that ended earlier this month. Former In-N-Out executive Richard Boyd filed a lawsuit last year alleging that Lynsi Martinez, the sole heir of company matriarch Esther Snyder, was trying to speed her ascension to the head of the company by ousting him.
In-N-Out countersued, accusing Boyd of embezzlement and fraud. The sides settled the case, with neither giving details of the pact.
No. 4 Lake Forest-based Del Taco Inc. boosted its sales 12% to $335 million in 2005. Del Taco, which has 67 restaurants in OC, added 21 restaurants nationally in 2005 for a total of 461.
Rounding out the top five was Mimi’s Cafe, which had sales of about $310 million. Mimi’s, a unit of Columbus, Ohio-based Bob Evans Farms Inc., added 21 restaurants nationally for an estimated 100 restaurants, including 10 in OC.
The list includes restaurants and subsidiaries run from OC, and excludes juice bars, coffeehouses or doughnut shops.
Nationally, restaurant chains are expected to have another solid year of growth in 2006. Revenue is seen rising 5.1% to $511 billion in the U.S., according to the National Restaurant Association.
Several OC restaurant chains traded hands in the past year.
No. 8 Irvine-based Mexican fast-food chain El Pollo Loco Holdings Inc. was bought by New York’s Trimaran Capital Partners LLC for an estimated $400 million.
El Pollo Loco, which posted an 8% rise in sales to $237 million, filed to go public earlier this year.
Los Angeles-based Leonard Green & Partners LP paid an estimated $225 million for a majority stake in No. 6 Irvine’s Claim Jumper Enterprises Inc. from owner and President Craig Nickoloff.
Claim Jumper saw a 12% rise in sales to $252 million.
In April, No. 7 Marie Callender Pie Shops Inc. in Aliso Viejo said it was set to be bought by Memphis, Tenn.-based Restaurant Co., which runs 500 Perkins restaurants in 35 states. Terms weren’t disclosed.
New York-based private equity firm Castle Harlan Inc. controls both companies through funds it manages. Marie Callender’s planned to cut 40 to 60 workers at its Aliso Viejo headquarters as part of the sale. Its sales were flat at $239 million.
Meanwhile, Nashville, Tenn.-based Sagittarius Brands Inc. and several private equity firms closed their buy of Del Taco for undisclosed terms earlier this year.
Sales gainers on the list included No. 9 BJ’s Restaurants Inc., based in Huntington Beach.
The pizza chain posted a 38% rise in sales to $178 million in 2005. It plans to open 11 restaurants in 2006 after opening nine last year. BJ’s operates 47 restaurants in all.
No. 10 Newport Beach-based Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar had an estimated $150 million in sales. Headed by restaurateur Paul Fleming,the P.F. in P.F. Chang’s China Bistro,the chain is part of Tampa-based OSI Restaurant Partners Inc.
Fleming is set to open a restaurant, Blue Coral Seafood & Spirits, at Fashion Island in Newport Beach in July. The chain also plans to expand in Tennessee, Florida and Arizona this year.
No. 14 Irvine-based Yard House Restaurants LLC grew sales 25% to $78 million last year. Yard House opened five of its casual American fare restaurants in 2005, including one in OC.
Yard House expects to open eight restaurants in three new markets during the next two years.
No. 19 Santa Ana-based Wahoo’s Fish Taco recorded $27 million in sales last year, up 10% from a year earlier.
Wahoo’s opened 10 restaurants during the past year, including ones on Oahu’s South Shore and another in Colorado. The Mexican food chain has 43 restaurants in all.
