What are the biggest operational shifts you anticipate needing to make in 2026 – labor, supply chain, menu, or technology?
Having the insight to predict upcoming operational changes and being able to adapt to those changes goes a long way in the success of any business. As we look ahead to 2026, Franchise Update asked members of the Multi-Unit Franchisee Advisory Board for their thoughts about some of the biggest operational issues they anticipate in the coming year.
The most popular response to that question was the topic of labor. Whether it is through higher minimum wage rates or other factors, the cost of labor continues to increase. That causes restaurant operators to try to offset these expenses through greater efficiency. That may come through streamlined processes, scheduling, or the use of technology.
Implementing technology, and in some cases AI, will continue to be a priority for restaurant franchisees in the near future. While that also goes hand-in-hand with increasing labor efficiency, harnessing the best use of technology is also visible in the front of the house by optimizing the customer experience.
In Multi-Unit Franchisee magazine, we try to go beyond just the professional stories of the franchisees we feature. We also want to give our readers an idea of what these successful entrepreneurs are like as a person. One example is when we ask for one thing that most people don’t know about them. It could be a hidden talent, personal interest, or their history before getting into franchising. See the Franchisee Bytes section below to gain additional insights about these multi-unit restaurant operators.
Hannibal Myers
Company: Global Restaurant Hospitality GroupBrands: 31 Church’s Texas Chicken
Years in Franchising: 33
Given the anticipated further minimum wage increases in the California markets where we operate and continued pressure on the fundamental QSR supply chain elements, regardless of concept particulars, the following operational shifts are being prepped by our team and many other QSR franchisees:
Tighter labor scheduling, including a maniacal focus on eliminating “overtime creep” by staying fully staffed at all times across all positions.
Enhanced menu management with an eye towards ensuring any promotional offers are properly tested and vetted by the franchisor prior to rollout. That also includes very slow-moving menu items that are more thoroughly and quickly analyzed than in the past and removed from the menu, if warranted.
Continued technology assessments to identify ways to automate the simpler, repetitive tasks or processes involved in operating our stores. The initial focus of this initiative will be on ways to extend the life of products used in the cooking process, ways to extend and monitor the mean time between failure metrics of key equipment, and opportunities to automate simpler cooking tasks that don’t require meaningful skill or human judgment to perform.
– Source: Franchising.com