More restaurant openings than closings in April: report

During the past 12 months in Canada a record number of 3,344 restaurants went out of business, according to the latest findings from Unified Data Lab, a monthly census of newly opened restaurants and closed restaurants.

Eighty-two restaurants permanently closed in April, according to the company’s research. That’s down 54 per cent from March and the lowest number of closings in the past 12 months. There were 124 openings in April, relatively consistent to the 128 openings in March.

Forty-seven of the openings were in Ontario.

The cities with the most restaurant closures include Toronto, Montreal, Scarborough, Mississauga, Ottawa, Winnipeg, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver.

“Whiskey” continues to be a featured ingredient in menu items, from TGI Friday’s Crispy Whiskey Combo to Dunkin’s Iced Shamrock Macchiato restaurants are using whiskey as a distinctive ingredient to drive sales and profit margins, according to Unified Data’s Menu Connect data.

In the U.S., permanent restaurant closings were down 51 per cent from March and the lowest since last summer. New restaurant openings have increased by 71 per cent to 1,469. This is the first month since the company began measuring the market over a year ago that they have reported a net positive number of restaurant openings. Eighty-four of the new U.S. restaurant openings were pizza operators.