April 2026
Despite a flattening of consumer spending in the QSR category, competition continues to grow as do restaurant brand investment plans. Understanding why and how consumers make choices in QSR food choices is key to remaining competitive in 2026.
Presenting at Barrenjoey's Annual QSR Day investor session, Fonto’s founder Ben Dixon outlined that despite an estimated 380 new QSR locations announced to be opened over the next 12 months, consumer spending in the category has slowed from 2024 to early 2026.
When combining purchases made either directly with major QSR brands or via delivery apps, 80% of Australians aged 18+ made at least one purchase per month in 2024, compared to 78% during 2025. Meanwhile, average basket prices for that time period have not kept pace with inflation, as frequency of purchase has also marginally declined.
In the face of aggressive physical expansion plans by challenger brands, this creates new hurdles for both traditional brands looking to retain customers, as well as the current tranch of premium QSR alternatives.
While overall market penetration for traditional, legacy brands has slightly decreased since 2024, there are big upsides for the challengers that bring a unique offering to market and align with consumer demand. Yo-Chi has added more than 3 million new customers since early 2024 despite a limited number of new store openings, emphasising the efficacy of its business and model which drives a high revenue to store count ratio. Guzman y Gomez, which continues to target 35 to 40 new store openings annually, continued its charge in the category, adding another 1.7 million customers since January 2024. Other brands finding their niche and capitalising well included El Jannah, Zambrero, YOMG and Zeus St Greek.
Delivery apps continue to be a major focus for QSR brands, with several restaurant CEOs and CFOs in attendance commenting on both their volume based importance as well as the imposition on margins that apps such as Doordash and Uber Eats represent.
To highlight the importance of participation and visibility on delivery apps, Fonto data has shown that for Australians ordering QSR options on major delivery apps, 43% of them would not stay loyal to their preferred food choice if it wasn’t available on the app they were using. Rather, they would simply switch to whatever food choices were available.
