February 2020

It’s no secret the restaurant industry in Canada is undergoing a period of mediocre growth. Today’s operators are navigating a challenging environment whereby stealing share is the only real way to achieve growth. And while total foodservice has experienced anemic growth over the last five-plus years, it’s been a particularly challenging few years for full-service restaurants in Canada. Overall, traffic at FSR continues to decline year-over-year, down 141 million visits compared to 2012. Dollars are also down on the year and have been relatively flat since 2012. While the mid- to long-term trend has been negative, the short-term trend has also been lacklustre. Traffic is down three per cent year-over-year in 2016 and dollar growth is failing to keep pace with inflation (a decrease of two per cent compared to last year). Further compounding this challenging marketing is the fact that