MediaPost has a great write up on the Technomic VP's assessment of the restaurant industry. Joseph Pawlak wrote in the company's newsletter that, "while things are looking better, we are hardly out of the woods."The recent "improvement" in same-store sales is actually a slowing of decline, rather than a return to growth, he stresses. In his viewpoint, he notes that the foodservice industry lost nearly 10% of its real value in 2008 and 2009, and if it grew at a 1.1% real annual rate (the average for the past two decades), it would take nine years to regain those losses. Annual real growth of 3% would be needed to get back to the industry's 2007 peak within three years, and that rate has been seen only four times in the past three decades, Pawlak adds.He also mentions that while places had freed up cash-flow due to an adjustment in workers and food costs, they are using it to support discounts, which have no certain benefits in the long term.
