News

Restaurant traffic growing in every market outside US

September 19, 2017

With the U.S. being the exception, foodservice markets across the world reported various degrees of visit growth in Q2 ending in June, according to The NPD Group.

European markets continued their solid recovery, and Brazil and Russia — both mired in recession in recent years — came back, according to a news release about the data analysis. Korea also posted a very solid traffic gain. Total visits to U.S. restaurants and foodservice outlets declined by 1 percent or a loss of 94.5 million visits in the quarter compared to year ago, according to NPD Group's Crest, which tracks consumer use of foodservice outlets in Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, Korea, Russia, Spain and the United States.  

"It has been awhile since we've seen such broad-based traffic growth across the globe, which makes future quarters look promising," said Bob O'Brien, senior vice president, global foodservice at The NPD Group, in the release. "Although most of the visit growth is from quick service, meaning smaller average check sizes, it's a sign that consumers are gaining financial confidence and taking advantage of the convenience foodservice offers."

QSRs, delivery and mobile services driving growth

Nearly all the global foodservice traffic growth came from the QSR segment. Consumers responded positively to the advantageous pricing, aggressive unit expansion and advertising of QSR chains and outlets, according to NPD. The growing interest in foodservice delivery services, mobile ordering and payment around the world was also a driver of foodservice growth in the quarter. In every market NPD tracks, virtually all the growth in the past couple of years has come from mobile or internet services.

What's dayparts got to do with it?

Visits at the morning meal are growing broadly, but it is still a relatively small daypart in terms of traffic share in most global markets and can't drive overall growth like other meals can. Lunch traffic did increase in Brazil, China, Russia, and Spain but declined in all other countries. Visits at dinner were flat to up in most countries, with the exception of Australia, Canada and the U.S.