For a rarified group of food entrepreneurs, hitting the big time means selling millions of $5 foot-long sandwiches, $3 Japanese beef bowls or classic pepperoni pizzas for $5.99. Sell enough of those—or enough franchises that sell this popular fast food—and you may end up on FORBES list of the World’s Billionaires.
Fourteen people of the 2,043 members of the new FORBES World’s Billionaires list have done just that. Some of the super successful companies they own are familiar names to Americans (think Subway and Little Caesars), while others have built a loyal following in places like Japan and the Philippines.
Mike and Marian Ilitch. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
1. Marian Ilitch And Family
Company: Little Caesars
Net worth: $6 billion
Marian Ilitch, who with her children has a fortune of $6 billion, became the sole surviving founder of Little Caesars Pizza this year after her husband and cofounder, Michael Ilitch, passed away in February at 87.
The couple, both first-generation Macedonian immigrants, met on a blind date arranged by Michael’s father in 1954. They opened their first pizzeria together in May 1959 with their life savings—$10,000—in Garden City, Michigan. Now one of America’s largest pizza chains, Little Caesars posted revenues of over $4.2 billion in 2016. Outside of the U.S., they have restaurants in twenty other countries including Canada, Bahrain, Guam, Saudi Arabia and Turkey.
Dan Cathy. (Photo by A. Messerschmidt/Getty Images)
2. Bubba Cathy And Dan Cathy
Company: Chick-Fil-A
Net worth: $3.8 billion
Brothers Dan and Bubba Cathy inherited fried chicken empire Chick-Fil-A from their father, Truett Cathy, after he passed away in September 2014 at the age of 93.
Truett opened the first Chick-Fil-A in an Atlanta mall in 1967, serving chicken sandwiches to factory and airport workers. In a column of Forbes on July 27, 1998, Truett wrote, “I am a Southern Baptist, and I believe that Sunday is a divine day. Fifty-two years ago we made a decision to close our restaurants on Sundays, and we never varied from that.” Almost two decades later, sons Dan and Bubba have kept to that decree and continue to keep the 2,000 stores shuttered on Sundays. The fried chicken moguls both debuted our Billionaires List in 2015 with a net worth of $3.2 billion. This year, they are worth $3.8 billion.
Tony Tan Caktiong. (NOEL CELIS/AFP/Getty Images)
4. Tony Tan Caktiong And Family
Company: Jollibee
Net worth: $3.4 billion
Tony Tan Caktiong, worth $3.4 billion, built his fortune via his family-owned Jollibee, an Asian restaurant chain that serves up Filipino, Chinese, American and European dishes.
In 1978 Caktiong and his family opened an ice cream parlor in the Cubao neighborhood of Quezon City in the Philippines. That was the first of now over 2,900 Jollibee locations worldwide. Caktiong shows no signs of slowing down—in January 2016, Jollibee purchased a 40% stake in U.S. burger chain Smashburger for $100 million. In August 2016, Jollibee opened a new location in Skokie, Illinois with hundreds of people waiting in line at the opening.
Andrew and Peggy Cherng. (Photo courtesy of Panda Restaurant Group)
5. Andrew And Peggy Cherng
Company: Panda Express
Net worth: $3.1 billion
Panda Express was created by Andrew and Peggy Cherng. Immigrants from China and Burma, they met as students at Baker University in Kansas.
They opened their first Chinese food joint, Panda Express, in 1983 at a mall in a LA suburb. By making orange chicken and sweet-and-sour pork available to mall shoppers, airport travelers and Americans hungry for affordable, quick Chinese food, the couple debuted on the FORBES billionaires list in 2013 with a net worth of $2 billion.Today, they are worth $3.1 billion. Panda Express had $2.8 billion in 2016 revenues from its 1,900 locations. In 2011, they opened their first international restaurant in Mexico City and have since expanded internationally, including Puerto Rico, South Korea and Dubai.
John H. Schnatter. (Photo by Rob Kim/Getty Images)
12. (Tie) John Schnatter
Company: Papa John's
Net worth: $1 billion
While fast food can be the source of immense billionaire-level wealth, like any great fortune, success can also be fickle. Papa John’s CEO John Schnatter is another newcomer on our Billionaires List this year.
Shares of the publicly-traded pizza joint surged 58% surge in share price in 2016, which put Schnatter’s net worth at $1 billion as of mid February 2017. He started the company in 1984 out of a broom closet. Now, the pizzeria operates in 4,900 locations in 44 countries and territories, and pulled in$1.64 billion in sales in 2015. Papa John’s, however, posted weaker-than-expected sales for its fourth quarter, which it reported on February 21. The next day, the shares fell 7%. As of March 20, 2017 Forbes pegged his net worth at $925 million, knocking him out of the billionaires ranks, for now at least.
Kentaro Ogawa. (Photo by The Asahi Shimbun via Getty Images)
12. (Tie) Kentaro Ogawa
Company: Zensho Group
Net worh: $1 billion
New billionaire Kentaro Ogawa built his $1 billion fortune on shredded beef and rice bowls. Called “gyudon,” the meal is a staple at Sukiya, a chain with 1,970 locations in Japan, China, Mexico and Brazil.
The gyudon guru founded food chain Zensho in 1982 after a career in shipyard work and labor union activism. Now trading on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, Zensho operates a network of 4,800 restaurants; Zensho’s other food chains serve udon noodles,hamburger steaks and conveyer-belt sushi.
Here are the 14 billionaires, in net worth order, who minted big money in fast food:
1.Marian Ilitch And Family
Company: Little Caesars
Net worth: $6 billion
2. (Tie) Bubba Cathy
Company: Chick-Fil-A
Net worth: $3.8 billion
2. (Tie) Dan Cathy
Company: Chick-Fil-A
Net worth: $3.8 billion
4. Tony Tan Caktiong And Family
Company: Jollibee
Net worth: $3.4 billion
5. Andrew And Peggy Cherng
Company: Panda Express
Net worth: $3.1 billion
6. Louis Le Duff
Company: Groupe Le Duff
Net worth: $2.6 billion
7. Peter Buck
Company: Subway
Net worth: $2.5 billion
8. Wu Zhigang And Family
Company: Shenyang Toly Bread
Net worth: $2.1. billion
9. Jack Cowin
Company: Hungry Jack’s
Net worth: $1.7 billion
10. Hur Young-In
Company: Paris-Croissant Food
Net worth: $1.6 billion
11. Ronald Joyce
Company: Tim Hortons
Net worth: $1.4 billion
12. (Tie) John Schnatter
Company: Papa John's
Net worth: $1 billion
12. (Tie) Edgar Sia
Company: Mang Inasal
Net worth; $ 1 billion
12. (Tie) Kentaro Ozawa
Company: Zensho Group
Net worh: $1 billion
Source: Forbes.com
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