Research by the Local Data Company (LDC) has indicated that fast food outlets have increased by +8.2% to 1,456 outlets in the UK’s top ten cities in the 12 months since November 2008, with Subway and Domino’s the major movers.

With one in ten outlets closing, the retail and leisure companies have borne the brunt of the recession. Burger King has closed 11.8% of its outlets whilst Domino’s has increase it outlets by +50% with Eat (+36.4%) and Pret-A-Manger (+29.7%) all growing substantially as well.

James Moss of Curzon Investment Property said: “The Dominos and Subway franchise model has allowed them to be pretty recession proof, and many individual businessmen have found them to be sturdy investments, as these figures show. Clearly, Britons are also shunning posh business lunches and choosing instead to head to Eat or Pret for a sandwich.”

There has also been an increase in independents (with less than five outlets) as their market share has moved up by +2.2%.

The three cities with the most fast food outlets are London, unsurprisingly, on top with 847, Edinburgh at 129 and Glasgow having 94.

Across the UK’s 705 monitored town centres there are 13,303 fast food outlets of which 71.6% are independents. With fast food takeaways (KFC, McDonalds etc) being the most prolific category with over 62% of the outlets.