Worldwide restaurant market shows modest growth

Chicago – The international food-service industry held steady in the third quarter and performed better than the previous quarter, with Canada making a modest gain, reports global information company The NPD Group. 

The modest growth is in spite of an earthquake in Italy, a terror attack in France, a potential recession in Canada, concerns over the impact of Brexit, and two years of a deep recession in Brazil, the company said.

Visits to European restaurants and other food-service outlets were at least flat and sales were up, the report said. Australia, which has enjoyed nearly a generation of economic growth, outperformed all other global foodservice markets in terms of traffic growth. With its economy improving at a moderate rate, Japan’s food-service consumers increased their visits.

Canada, which had the largest decline in its GDP since the second quarter of 2009, realized a modest gain in traffic in the third quarter over last year.  

Other markets with weakened or slow moving economies didn’t fare as well in the third quarter. Given the challenging economic climate in Brazil where the GDP dropped nearly four per cent in the quarter, food-service visits declined by seven per cent, the sharpest declines in all of the countries tracked by NPD Group. Russia, also faced with economic challenges, realized a three per cent decline in food-service traffic.

Quick-service restaurants again drove the growth of the European foodservice markets in the third calendar quarter of 2016. Market strength was more widespread in Australia, Germany, and Spain, where consumers felt the economy was on the upswing. The formerly widespread growth in Great Britain became more limited. The North American markets were held down by the two main restaurant segments, quick and full service restaurants. Japan’s huge retail foodservice segment helped to keep its market afloat.