S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) shares can be some of the best investments because they're large enough to have a strong market position and an economic moat, while offering appealing long-term growth.
The two businesses I'll highlight have both delivered strong operational growth over the last few years. They also appear to be primed for further growth over the next few years.
One of them is a Mexican food business, while the other is heavily involved in the funds management world.
Guzman Y Gomez Ltd (ASX: GYG)
GYG is a Mexican restaurant business, it's both a franchisor and corporate store operator.
At the latest count at 31 March 2025, Guzman Y Gomez had 211 Australian locations, with 73 corporate restaurants and 138 franchised restaurants. It also had 20 Singapore locations, four Japan locations and six US locations.
There is the prospect of the business growing in four different countries and it could expand to other countries in the future such as the UK or Canada.
One of the main reasons I'm excited about the business is its comparable sales growth – that's the sales growth delivered by its existing store network. In the FY25 third quarter, the Australian, Singaporean and Japanese combined comparable sales growth was 11.1% year-over-year, partly thanks to the strong growth in breakfast and after 9pm sales.
The business expects to grow its profit margins as it adds further scale while also targeting 1,000 GYG locations in Australia in the ultra-long term.
When I think about how much larger the ASX 200 share could become, it could be significantly larger, with strong comparable growth and compelling store network expansion. The GYG share price has fallen more than 30% from 19 February 2025, making it look a lot cheaper.
Pinnacle Investment Management Group Ltd (ASX: PNI)
Pinnacle is an investment business – it's "growing a diverse family of world-class investment management" affiliates. Along with investing in these fund management businesses, it also provides seed funding, global institutional and retail distribution, and 'industrial-grade' middle-office and infrastructure services.
By giving the affiliates excellent non-investment services, it helps them to focus on delivering "investment excellence" to their clients, according to Pinnacle.
Thanks to the long-term growth of the ASX share market and global share market, Pinnacle and its affiliates' funds under management (FUM) benefits from the organic growth of share markets.
The ASX 200 share's affiliates have a strong track record – 88% of affiliates' strategies and products (with a track record of more than five years) have outperformed their benchmarks over the five years to 31 March 2025.
This strong performance helps Pinnacle's affiliates retain existing FUM and attract new client FUM. In the three months to 31 March 2025, the business saw net inflows of $6.2 billion, taking aggregate affiliate FUM to $159.9 billion at 31 March 2025.
Despite that, the Pinnacle share price is down 26% since 5 April 2025, as the chart below shows. It looks very attractive to me at this level.
