QSR May 2022

The Origin of Restaurant Royalty BY DEFINITION, FLYNN RESTAURANT GROUP IS A MULTI-UNIT FRANCHISEE. But the descriptor doesn’t fully capture what industry veteran Greg Flynn and his team have built across more than two decades. The organization is the largest operator for Arby’s, PizzaHut, and Applebee’s, the second-biggest for Taco Bell and Panera, and the fifth forWendy’s. That equates to 2,355 restaurants nationally, 73,000 employees, and $3.7 billion in annual revenue, making Flynn Restaurant Group the largest industry franchisee in the U.S. and potentially, globally. The company stretches more than 3,000miles, fromPortland, Maine, to Portland, Oregon. Its most significant move came in 2021, with a $552.6 million purchase of 937 PizzaHut and 194Wendy’s stores frombankrupt operator NPC International—the largest franchise transaction in U.S. history. “You add all this up, it completed our journey in a way that was 100 percent consistent with our strategy,” Flynn says. What does it take to build one of the biggest franchise companies in restaurant history? Discipline and a perpetual focus on the bigger picture, Greg Flynn says. / B Y B E N C O L E Y www.qsrmagazine.com | QSR | MAY 2022 43 FRANCHI SE PERSPECT IVES