Mooyah Burgers Targets Expansion Amid Industry Challenges

Mooyah Burgers, Fries & Shakes, a Plano, Texas-based burger chain, is seeking to regain its sizzle in a competitive fast-casual restaurant marketplace. 

But Mooyah Franchising LLC, which operates the burger chain, has shuttered as many as two dozen eateries over the past few years and faces pricing pressures and escalating real estate costs in its quest to gain market share.

Mooyah opened six new stores scattered throughout the U.S. so far in 2025, and it plans to open three more by year’s end. Overall, Mooyah operates 76 franchise locations in 21 states, Vice President Gary Lisenbee told Bisnow in an interview. 

Experts say the fast-casual burger sector is already crowded. The burger and sandwich segments of the quick-service restaurant industry are projected to grow less than half a percent this year after sales growth of just 1% last year, according to Nation's Restaurant News. The report cites data from the industry research firm Technomic. 

Some of Mooyah’s competitors in the burger space have encountered financial difficulty. 

In September 2024, the owner of BurgerFi declared bankruptcy. This April, Consolidated Burger Holdings, which owns 75 Burger King franchises in two states, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and closed 20 stores. It joins two other Burger King franchise holding companies with 200 Burger Kings that filed for bankruptcy in 2023, according to the Daily Mail. 

In 2016, Mooyah had as many as 100 locations in the U.S. In 2017, the chain was acquired by an affiliate of Balmoral Funds LLC and Gala Capital Partners. In the subsequent years, the number of Mooyah locations was trimmed down. Lisenbee said the closings helped position the company for a stronger future.

“We’ve made Mooyah strong with the elimination of underperforming operators and units,” Lisenbee wrote in a text to Bisnow. “This is our strongest growth year.”

The headwinds burger joints are experiencing are being felt industrywide, said Daniel Bendas, managing partner of the restaurant consulting firm Synergy Restaurant Consultants.  

“I think restaurants in general are oversaturated,” Bendas said. “There’s a tremendous amount of competition.”

Mooyah hasn't settled on a target for an exact number of new locations for 2026, Lisenbee said. 

“The key for us is really finding the right partners,” Lisenbee said. 

The hunt for real estate will be a challenge, as there is fierce competition among tenants for prime retail sites. A Cushman & Wakefield survey found that retail vacancy had fallen to 5.3% in the second quarter of 2024, the lowest that rate has fallen in two decades, CRE Daily reported. 

“Finding real estate now is more challenging due to increased demand, particularly for drive-thru locations,” Lisenbee said. “The increased demand and overall inflation have led to higher rents and tighter margins.”

One way Mooyah has managed rising real estate costs has been to rein in the amount it spends on building out new stores. Overall, the chain has shrunk its build-out costs by 22% over the past two years, Lisenbee said.

Operating costs have also been a hurdle to navigate for quick-serve restaurants, with profits shrinking from rising labor expenses, higher food costs and impacts from tariffs, Robert Woolway, a managing director of the investment bank CriticalPoint, told Bisnow in an email. Burger purveyors have especially been hit by record-high beef prices. Ground beef jumped nearly 14% year-over-year in August as the supply of cattle hit a 70-year low, according to The Guardian.

“As beef costs have risen significantly, the major hamburger chains are feeling margin pressure and have had to shift to value offerings and promotions to retain price-sensitive customers,” Woolway said. 

Salar Sheik, a restaurant consultant and founder of Savory Hospitality Restaurant Consulting, said the overdevelopment of the burger segment gives landlords the luxury to choose between up-and-coming burger brands or more well-established players that will likely draw in more customers. 

Even in a crowded field, an eatery can differentiate itself if it offers a flavor that drives customer satisfaction, Sheik said. 

“Being in the burger game, it has to be about flavor,” he said. “The market is oversaturated, of course, but if people find that one niche of value and flavor, you can’t dispute that.”