Aude, and particularly the west of the department, was marked in 2024 by a series of openings of fast food brands. A replica of a national phenomenon, which also shows the disaffection of these franchises for city centers. Case.
Fast food, a record year 2023
Studies, strategic monitoring, data analysis: since 2005, the company Food Service Vision has been offering its services to catering players. In 2024, the Lyon company published in its magazine “Chains” a study on fast food, with a historic 2023 vintage, and the threshold of 20 billion euros in turnover (turnover) exceeded for the first time. “Almost 4 billion euros more than in 2019, almost double that of 2020 (year of Covid, Editor’s note) and growth of 8% compared to 2022″summarized the study, devoted to 16,207 points of sale. A success in which fast food, in all its forms, is a winner: with 8.7 billion euros in turnover, the hamburger takes first place on the 2023 podium.
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“I cleared the way for the burger world in Aude”: how Alain Grand, his three McDonald’s brands and his 32 years of seniority, perceives the surge in competition
Add the tacos, and a turnover up 26%, to €434 million, and you will understand that fast food has a bright future ahead of it. A boom that is nothing new, of course. McDonald's, in particular, did not wait for the 21ste century to conquer France and reach 1,560 restaurants in 2023… including 12 in the Aude department alone. But since Covid, and the imposed success of click and collect, the phenomenon is gaining momentum. And particularly benefits the brands, rejoiced the French Franchise Federation (FFF) in its 2023 report: fast food brought together 262 (up 26% compared to 2022) of the 2035 brands listed by the FFF in its report. activity 2023. With turnover up 24.3% compared to 2022.
Aude cannot resist the sirens
At the end of 2023, Le Figaro tried its hand at a new kind of ranking, renewing the exercise dedicated to the best high schools or the best hospitals: the quest for the cities with the most fast-food brands, based on the data from the geomarketing company Smappen, to identify the number of burger, taco and kebab restaurants. Big “winner”, Valenciennes, with its 145.7 fast food restaurants per 100,000 inhabitants. And a place in the Top 30 for Narbonne, with 100.87 restaurants per 100,000 inhabitants, based on the 22, 13 and 21 sites respectively dedicated to burgers, tacos and kebabs.
Like any classification, the exercise has biases, and in particular the question of the border to be defined between fast food and sit-down restaurants, or the choice of mixing independents and franchisees. The figures remain: 12 McDonald's, therefore, distributed between Carcassonne (2), Narbonne (2), Limoux, Castelnaudary, Lézignan, Sigean, Montredon-des-Corbières, Port-Leucate, Capendu (on the A 61) and the ” youngest”, in Bram, opened December 20; four Burger King; three KFCs; a Quick and a Popeyes, in Carcassonne. The list is obviously not exhaustive. But the comparison with Haute-Vienne and Deux-Sèvres, two departments with comparable populations, is edifying: the five brands mentioned above bring together 19 and 15 restaurants (with nine and seven McDonald's, Editor's note). Behind the 21 Aude establishments. Not to mention that the department also has a Tacos Avenue, a Tacos Lovers, or two Enjoy Tacos.
The shunned city centers
In Carcassonne, 2024 will have coincided with the opening of a Quick, a Popeyes, a Burger King; 2025 will see the “birth” of a 3rd Burger King in the capital, and a 2e KFC. So many brands that take up residence in commercial areas. In Narbonne, the McDonald's opened in 1992 in the city center has closed its doors: the brand is now in place at Espace Liberté, in Bonne Source and in an area of… Montredon-des-Corbières. Alain Grand, historic McDonald's franchisee, with a 1is restaurant opened in the city center of Carcassonne in 1992 – and closed in 2012 – descends into inevitability: “In 1999, I opened my 1is drive to Carcassonne. I was sort of competing with myself. The city center was doing less and less AC. Today, for a fast food brand to set up in the city center of Carcassonne, it would have to be more attractive, more attractive. The question is: what will I find in the city center that I can't find elsewhere?
Junk food or healthy food: neologism or anglicism, the battle continues
Donkeys, bells and banners. Friday, December 20, it is in its own way that the Confédération paysanne chose to “celebrate” the opening of the 11th McDo de l'Aude, in Bram. A mobilization announced to denounce “the artificialization of land, bad food, and anachronistic political choices”. 25 years after the media dismantling of the McDonald's in Millau, with José Bové in the lead, the Conf' has chosen the gentle method. But Yann Vétiis, one of the leaders of Conf' Aude, did not mince his words: “25 years ago, we dismantled a McDo in Millau to denounce free trade, we are not going to dismantle it today but it is still the same problem.” In the afternoon, opposite the new brand, a local producers' market took place. The opportunity to recall the importance of “local initiatives and to think together about solutions to support our businesses, artisans and local producers”. An ambition that goes against fast food, one of “c“long supply chains which do not allow farmers to make a living from their profession and have a decent income.” Once again singled out, McDonald's is sticking to its official line. That of the efforts made in terms of food security and food from “75 to 80% of French agriculture” for the main products which are bread, salads, meat or cheese, assures Alain Grand, 1st Aude franchisee, in 1992: “Where’s the junk food?” And to complete the demonstration by citing the €41 million spent in Occitanie in 2023 by the brand, between wheat, nectarine, salad or beef, and the “147 farmers under cascade contract with McDonald’s”.
