Consumers in many countries around the world cut back their visits to foodservice establishments in Q109, though increases at major chains and and hamburger fast-food outlets offset some of the declines, especially in Canada and the US, according to The NPD Group.
NPD’s CREST, which tracks consumer usage of foodservice in Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, the UK and the US, reported foodservice traffic declines in France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain,?the UK and the US. Traffic was essentially flat in Canada.?Total spending at foodservice outlets fell in all of the reported countries with the exception of?Canada and the US.
With the exception of Japan, traffic counts declined at quick service (fast food) restaurants in the monitored countries. Full service foodservice concepts posted virtually no growth around the world.
Most foodservice daypart segments (i.e. morning meal, lunch, supper, and evening snack) declined in nearly every country.? Supper was weak everywhere but France. Germany and the US experienced some growth in the morning meal daypart. The evening snack daypart showed the most encouraging trend, with increases or flat results in three countries.
“It appears this economic downturn has affected consumers similarly, regardless of the country in which they live,” says Bob O’Brien, SVP of global foodservice at NPD. “They are controlling their expenses by eating out less frequently, snacking less, cutting back on family visits, and when they do dine out, they are trading down to less expensive channels, and carefully managing their check size.”
NPD released its first CREST report on the Chinese commercial foodservice market in May 2009, which revealed that Chinese consumers rely on commercial foodservice for their meals/snacks consumption at least once every other day, and are more likely to patronize full service concepts in China’s metro cities and quick service/vendor concepts in Beijing, Nanjing, Hangzhou, and the country’s other capital cities.
