Wendy’s New Number 2 in Burger Sales (WEN, MCD, MCG, SBUX, PNRA)

The numbers come from the latest research by food industry consulting firm Technomic. Other figures from Technomic show that Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. (NYSE: CMG) was the fastest growing among publicly traded companies, with growth of 23.4% in sales. The fastest growing limited-service chain was Five Guys Burgers and Fries, which posted a year-over-year sales gain of 32.8%.

Starbucks Corp. (NASDAQ: SBUX) and privately held Subway each grew sales by 7.5% in 2011. Panera Bread Co. (NASDAQ: PNRA) posted sales growth of 10.1%.

As a whole, the top 500 restaurant chains in the US posted revenues of $242 billion in 2011, up 3.4% from 2010. The growth rate was nearly double the 1.8% growth in 2010.

The Technomic press release is available here.