Restaurant chains continue to increase their weight among out-of-home consumption options. This type of business, also known as branded or organized catering, and among which we can mention brands such as Vips, Burger King or La Tagliatella, of the Alsea, Restaurant Brands and Amrest groups, has handled a total of 11,162 million euros in the last year, a growth of 5.2% compared to the previous year, according to a report prepared by KPMG, Circana and the employers’ association Marcas de Restauración. This measures the period between August 2024 and the same month in 2025.
This percentage is higher than the 2.2% growth of commercial catering as a whole, which generated overall spending of 35,843 million euros. Of this figure, independent businesses represent 24,680 million, 0.9% more, a lower than average increase.
These different growth rates meant that organized chains increased their share to 31.1%, eight tenths more than a year ago, thus reaching the highest percentage since 2021. Independent chains, however, fell in the same proportion, to 68.9% of the total.
Since 2019, organized chains have increased sales by 46.9%, while independent chains have increased sales by 5.7%. “Increasing chain shares does not imply the relevance of the independent model,” the report states, “but does imply a progressive deterioration.”
It cites factors such as “cost pressure, the need for investment in digitalisation and the ability of brand restoration to generate economies of scale mark an increasingly visible competitive difference”. The branded restaurant sector claims that it has not yet reached a representative share, as it represents 57% in France. In fact, 95% of operators plan to create new openings in 2026 and seven out of 10 plan to do so at a higher rate than in 2025.
The total expenditure on food and drink outside the home, which in addition to restaurants includes hotels, nightclubs, vending machines or even minimarkets, amounted to 43.2 billion euros in Spain in the same August-August period, equal to 32.4% of the total expenditure for this type of product.
The percentage is the lowest in the last five years. “The loss of just over one percentage point in 2025 should be interpreted as a natural adjustment, a consequence of the normalization of spending after the post-pandemic expansion and the greater weight that domestic consumption continues to acquire,” we read in the report. Over the same one-year period, the number of visits to food and beverage establishments remained stable, even as average spending increased by 2.3%.
By type of restaurant format, fast food formats, i.e. those which do not include table service and which can be identified with the so-called fast food, are those which have grown the most in the last year, with an increase of 0.6 percentage points. Its rise is being devoured, in the same proportion, by full-service restaurants, which although continuing to be the most important, with a share of 42.3%, are increasingly closer to their predecessors, which already hold a share of 40.6%. The report explains that “the trend in recent years towards more agile, accessible and suitable formats for daily consumption” is consolidated.
What isn’t growing is home delivery of food. Between August 2024 and 2025, this represented 6.6% of spending, up from 6.7% the previous year. However, the takeaway alternative is growing from 24.7% to 27.4%, a phenomenon that is growing strongly after the pandemic: in 2019 it represented only 17.6% of consumption. “The expansion of in-store pickup offerings and new drive-thru models led by branded restaurants and independent operators have helped ensure convenience is fully integrated into the industry’s business strategy,” the study indicates.
