Restaurant Transactions: Valuing Store Maturity

After 2024's depressed deal environment, restaurant owners and investors were ready for action in 2025, and outlooks were especially promising for quick service restaurants (QSRs)¹. Based on a review of transaction details provided by the Alvarez & Marsal Global Insight Center, US restaurant transactions completed during the first and second quarters of 2025 were slightly down from the prior year, with 34 completed transactions versus 38 during the same period in 2024. Prospective investors and business owners have been continually assessing the evolving tariff policy landscape and how inflation uncertainty could impact food/ingredient pricing and wage rates. However, investors have remained confident M&A markets will pick up in periods to come as pent-up demand is anticipated to materialize—and recent headlines are starting to suggest that this is occurring.²