With US Sales Slowing, Fast Food Players Carry Out International Expansion Plans

Fast food companies are feeling the squeeze.

On one hand, sales are growing in the emerging markets abroad. At the same time, however, the quick-service restaurants also are wrestling with a slowdown in their home U.S. market, and a backlash from media-fueled concerns about the spread of obesity.

In a saturated U.S. market, fast food firms have had to find a delicate balance between soaring raw ingredient prices and a penurious U.S. consumer who is increasingly feeling the pinch of high gasoline prices and a slowing U.S. economy.

Many of the names that have long been associated with the American market have turned to growing overseas markets to compensate for lagging domestic sales.