News

Study: UK says 'God save the restaurant industry'

October 4, 2016

NPD Group said its latest food service tracking results show that Brits may want out of the European Union, but their love of eating out has never been stronger. In fact, in the second quarter of this year ending in June, Britain came out as the biggest gainer in the world food service market, with the globe's most gains in overall traffic and sales, according to a news release. 

NPD Group said that the country’s dominance in the food service realm that quarter was driven by a mix of increased traffic and higher spending per diner. The group’s Crest tracking mechanism measures consumer use of restaurants in Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, Russia, Spain, the U.S. and now, South Korea, where the first results will be reported starting the first quarter of next year.
 
Traffic gains were reported in Great Britain, Australia, France, Japan, and Spain, while traffic in Germany remained stable. The huge markets of China and the U.S. showed a relatively unusual drop-off in traffic that period, as did Canada, Italy, Russia and Brazil , where despite the Summer Olympics, overall economic woes resulted in the biggest food service traffic decline of all the nations monitored by the NPD Group. Other primary findings in the data from the second quarter include: 

•    Broad growth in morning meal sales, though not sufficient to drive overall growth.
•    Growth in all three dayparts drove gains in the healthiest European markets and Australia.
•    Morning meal and evening snack traffic increased business in Spain. 
•    Japan, China, and the U.S. all grew traffic in each culture’s peripheral dayparts. 
 
Nonetheless despite the gain's reported during the second quarter, NPD Group Global Food Service Senior Vice President Bob O'Brien said it may have all been the big bang before the bust. 

"Last quarter’s exciting, broad growth around the world proved to be ephemeral because this quarter is much weaker," he said in a news release. "Things are still growing in most of Europe, but our global analysts are wary of their near-term prospects. Chains are not as broadly strong and main day parts are weak outside of the strongest markets. And, in the U.S., Europe, Russia, and Canada, there is great uncertainty about the direction of the overall environment."