If you’re a history buff millennial—or someone my age—you’ll remember presidential candidate Lloyd Benson delivering a comeuppance to Dan Quayle during the vice-presidential debates in 1988 with the now famous line: “I knew Jack Kennedy...(and) Senator, you are no Jack Kennedy.”

Well, over the years I’ve gotten to know franchising, and, franchisees, you’re no mom and pop.

Welcome to our annual Franchise Times Restaurant 200 issue’s ranking of the top 200 restaurant franchisees in the nation based on last year’s sales. The list is put together by our sister publication, The Restaurant Finance Monitor, and we reprint it here with extended coverage of the franchisees on the list, plus analysis of the data.

The Monitor launched the ranking in 1992 with just 100 companies. We added the second 100 in 1996, and revenue for those companies was $11.7 billion, with 12,846 locations.

The goal was to show restaurant franchisees were no longer primarily “mom-and-pop” operators. These businesses are sophisticated companies with complex infrastructures, hundreds of employees and worth the attention of capital providers and other vendors.

This list has evolved, and here’s how: Today’s ranking features five companies whose revenues were in the billions. In fact, Flynn Restaurant Group, owner of almost 2,400 franchised restaurants, boasted $4 billion in sales alone last year. The Restaurant 200 companies’ combined revenues came in at about $53.3 billion, and they had 33,437 locations.

In this issue, we wanted to go behind the numbers and talk to some of the leaders of Top 200 companies that are making bold moves to grow. Here’s what the head of the company featured in our cover story this month, SSCP Management, had to say.

“I think we led system sales for three straight years,” Chris Dharod told Franchise Times Editor in Chief Laura Michaels. “…And I think we were doing it in a competitive market in DFW (Dallas/Ft. Worth). I mean, our biggest competitor, Chili’s, is based here. We were doing it in their home.”

Dharod, president of SSCP, an Applebee’s franchisee which ranks No. 55 on the list, was explaining to Laura how they took beleaguered restaurants in that market and turned them around.

His dad, well-known in the QSR industry, is Sunil Dharod, who started the company in 1986. Fast forward to 2023, and the company owns 80 Applebee’s—many of them underperforming units when they acquired them. SSCP also owns 43 Sonic locations, plus a stake in the Cicis pizza chain. And, to add to their portfolio, in June the company closed on the acquisition of Corner Bakery in a bankruptcy court auction. And they tell us there is more to come.

You’ll want to read the rest of the story, along with our other Restaurant 200 profiles, to learn about the journey they made to get where they are today.

We also have a family business focus in this issue, where you’ll read about families who work together every day, figuring out the best way to lead.

For J.R. Galardi, CEO of Wienerschnitzel and also son of the founder, taking over the family business after five years at the company seemed overwhelming.

“There was a plan in the beginning,” he said, “But as Mike Tyson says, ‘Everyone has a plan until getting punched in the face’…I never pushed to be in a leadership role faster. I was very eager to just learn everything I could.”

As you bob and weave your way through this issue, whether it’s about butlers and barbecue or bubble tea and boxing, you’ll have to admit there’s a whole lot more to franchising than just your average mom and pop.