Wendy's Knocks Burger King Off #2 Spot

​Technomic, the research and consulting firm that keeps score on this sort of thing, put out its annual ranking of fast-food restaurants yesterday. The firm reports that Wendy's has displaced Burger King as the number two burger chain with $8.5 billion in sales compared with Burger King's $8.4 billion.

McDonald's was, of course, still at the top of 500 largest chain restaurants, earning a staggering $34.2 billion last year. If you count the non-burger chains, Subway and Starbucks, Wendy's and Burger King technically ranked fourth and fifth behind Ronald McDonald's.

But the big news here, the one that blogs like this are talking about, is how Wendy's has outpaced The King. The achievement is even more significant when you consider that Burger King still has more restaurants than Wendy's.

The report also singled out Five Guys Burgers and Fries as the fastest-growing chain with a 32.8% improvement in earnings, which is better than Chipotle's 23.4% sales change last year.

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