Franchise Times recently published its Top 200 systems issue in a story by Jonathan Maze. The big takeaway for me is that franchising is on an upswing after experiencing no growth during much of the recent recession. But franchising has returned as a bright spot in the economy according to the article.

Restaurants appear to be the big winner in my review of the list. It also appears as though fitness franchises are experiencing impressive percentage growth numbers. But don’t mistake growth for profitability though, I’ve seen a number of fitness franchisees have trouble with profitability over the last few years, including some from fitness franchises on the list.

The success of McDonald’s is pretty remarkable according to the statistics. Maze points out in the last six years McDonald’s added more revenue that KFC sees in total for an entire year.

For a complete list of the franchises on the Top 200 list click here.

I also wonder what my friend The Franchise King would say about the value in these lists when researching franchise opportunities?