Although restaurant and foodservice visits are still down in most countries around the world, the global foodservice industry experienced slight growth as a result of increased consumer spending in the quarter ending June 2010 compared to the same quarter a year ago, according to The NPD Group, a market research company.
NPD’s foodservice market research finds that the industry’s bright spots were Canada and China, where foodservice traffic increased. With China’s economic recovery and increased consumer confidence, foodservice traffic increased by 13%, and Canada’s improved by a more modest gain of 2%.
According to NPD’s CREST, which tracks commercial foodservice usage in Canada, China, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, United Kingdom, and the US, the countries with the steepest traffic declines in the second quarter include Italy, Japan, and Spain. Spending increased, at least slightly, in the US, Canada, the UK, Germany, and China. Japan, where traffic was flat, was the only country with a measurable decline in the amount spent per person.
“Around the world, most of our analysts describe their economic environment and industry performance as “not so good, but not as bad as it was before”,” said Bob O’Brien, senior vice-president of global foodservice at NPD. “This amounts to faint hope for a broader environment of robust health.”
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