Ireland’s fast-food landscape closed 2025 with fewer outlets overall, yet with a noticeably broader mix of formats and concepts. While the total number of quick-service stores declined by 1.3% year-on-year, an examination of the less obvious trends reveals a more nuanced story, one shaped by new market entrants, shifting dayparts, and changing consumer habits.
Store Numbers Fall but Chicken and Ethnic Scale
Store closures were most pronounced among bakery and sandwich chains (-5.7%), reflecting sustained pressure on breakfast dependent formats. Burger (-1.0%), pizza (-1.5%) and coffee (-0.5%) also recorded marginal footprint declines.
Chicken (+6.7%) and ethnic (+3.7%) enjoyed expansion in 2025, driven by a wave of new market entries and rollout activity. Wingstop, Slim Chickens and German Doner Kebab launched in Ireland in December, while Taco Bell and Wendy’s continued expansion programmes initiated earlier in the year. Fat Phill’s entered the market mid-2025. Of the six new launches this year, four are American companies, highlighting Ireland’s lure as an entry point to Europe for international QSR concepts.
Ireland’s chicken growth reflects a broader structural shift already established in the UK, where the category has become the primary engine of fast-food expansion. In 2025, UK chicken-focused outlets grew by 6.5% year on year, significantly outpacing the 1.8% growth recorded across other fast-food formats.
In Ireland, chicken was likewise the fastest-growing segment, supported by new openings and delivering a pronounced +9.0% uplift in Q4. Importantly, the category remains far from saturation: the number of chicken outlets per capita in Ireland is approximately 30% lower than in the UK, indicating substantial runway for further expansion.
Maria Vanifatova, CEO of Meaningful Vision notes: “The headline decline in total outlets is largely the result of selective closures, but the important part of the story is about where new stores are being added. 2025 has been characterised by targeted expansion in chicken and ethnic, with international brands actively choosing Ireland as a launch and rollout market. Most new openings have concentrated in these high-growth segments, signalling strong investor confidence in formats that over-index at lunch and afternoon and deliver compelling value.”
Traffic Resilience and Q4’2025 Boost
Despite fewer locations, consumer engagement remained resilient. Total market traffic grew by 1.0% across the year, with fast food slightly ahead at +1.2%. Momentum accelerated in Q4, when fast-food traffic rose by 3.2%.
Chicken once again led performance, delivering 4.1% growth across the year and a sharp 9.0% increase in Q4, boosted by new store openings and strong consumer demand. Ethnic formats also gained momentum, growing 1.5% annually and 4.2% in the final quarter. By contrast, bakery and sandwich operators continued to struggle, recording a 5.0% annual decline in traffic.
The Middle of the Day Becomes the New Battleground
These performance gaps are closely linked to a shift in when consumers choose to visit. Daypart data shows a clear movement away from early mornings and late evenings toward the middle of the day. Visits between 12pm and 6pm now account for nearly two-thirds of fast-food traffic, with the 3–6pm window showing the strongest year-on-year growth.
Morning visits fell by 1.5 percentage points, while late evening traffic declined by 1.8 points, reinforcing the pressure on formats reliant on breakfast or late-night occasions.
Importantly, recent market entries have not yet reshaped the underlying daypart structure. Instead, growth has been additive, lifting overall volumes rather than redistributing demand between segments.
Competitive advantage in the Irish fast-food market will depend less on footprint scale, and more upon brand relevance to dominant dayparts and consumer demand patterns. Brands focused on lunchtime and afternoon occasions are best positioned to benefit from current trends. The months ahead will determine how new players might reshape the market; will they succeed in taking a slice of the pie, and will this heightened competition result in overall market growth?