By COURTNEY BAIRD
Expansion and revamped menus helped drive a 10% gain in sales last year at the 20 largest restaurant chains based in Orange County, according to this week’s Business Journal list.
The chains, which include fast-food operators, pizzerias and an upscale steak house, had sales of $4.7 billion last year.
The chains grew at more than twice the pace of the nation’s restaurants, which expanded by about 4% last year, according to the Washington, D.C.-based National Restaurant Association.
This year, the nation’s restaurants are projected to grow by about 5%, according to the trade group.
Many of the chains on the list are in the midst of expansion. Restaurant openings at several of them helped drive last year’s sales gain.
No. 2 Lake Forest-based Del Taco Inc. opened 15 restaurants in the past year, which drove sales up by 10% to $473 million. That was the biggest percentage gain among the top five chains on the list.
Del Taco, which serves Mexican food as well as hamburgers and fries, has 67 restaurants in OC and 440 overall.
No. 3 Irvine-based El Pollo Loco Inc. opened 13 restaurants in the past year. The Mexican chain’s 2004 sales grew 8% to $427 million.
El Pollo Loco, which has 45 OC restaurants and 323 in all, hopes to open 125 more in the next four years as part of an eastern expansion.
The dominant chain on the list, No. 1 Taco Bell Corp., added a handful of restaurants in the past year, mostly franchises. Taco Bell’s sales are up an estimated 5% to $1.6 billion, thanks largely to new menu items and a marketing push.
Taco Bell accounts for a third of the revenue on the list. Without Taco Bell, the 19 other chains grew sales by 13% last year to $3.1 billion.
The list includes restaurant chains based here or subsidiaries that are run from OC. The list doesn’t include juice bars, coffee houses or doughnut shops.
This year’s list includes 20 entries, up from 15 in 2004, reflecting OC’s role as a hub for restaurant operators.
New entries include No. 9 Newport Beach-based Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse, part of Tampa, Fla.-based Outback Steakhouse Inc.; No. 12 Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. of San Clemente; No. 16 Costa Mesa-based King’s Seafood Co.; No. 18 San Clemente-based Oggi’s Pizza & Brewing Co.; and No. 20 Lake Forest-based John’s Incredible Pizza Co.
The newcomers brought $369 million in sales to the list, or about 8% of the total.
The list includes 10 Business Journal estimates for chains that declined to disclose revenue.
Sales gains were common across the list.
No. 15 Irvine-based Yard House Restaurants LLC grew 2004 sales by 42% to $63 million, thanks to recent openings in Rancho Cucamonga and Illinois. Restaurants in Scottsdale, Phoenix and Palm Beach, Fla., are planned by December.
“People obviously like something about the Yard House,” Chief Executive Steele Platt said. “We have a strong California brand recognition.”
No. 14 PickUp Stix Inc., a San Clemente-based unit of Minnesota’s Carlson Cos., saw a 2004 sales gain of 33% to $80 million with a handful of restaurant openings.
No. 20 John’s Incredible Pizza Co., which runs a chain of pizza parlors in Central California and one in Montclair, reported 2004 sales of $24 million, up 33% from a year earlier. The chain has six locations and hopes to be at 15 by 2007.
The chains on the list employ 13,020 people in OC, up 4% from a year earlier.
