February 8, 2011

In this week's continuing series of providing information service to your clients, I came across this about the restaurant category. Cut and paste this and send it to your client with a note that says something like, "I saw this and thought of you!"

Good news....business is looking up for the restaurant category. This week's columns are focused on providing information service to your clients and prospects. I do this all the time by finding and forwarding relevant industry articles to that category ... and almost every time, get a note back with something along the lines of "thanks for thinking of us!"

This comes from FatCasual:

After a three-plus-year lull influenced by the Great Recession, the restaurant industry is expected to boomerang back to positive growth numbers in 2011. Research released this week by the National Restaurant Association predicts a record $604 billion in sales this year, an increase of 3.6% over 2010, or 1.1% in inflation-adjusted terms.

The NRA's "Restaurant Industry Forecast," which surveyed operators across the country in all segments, made its New Year's predictions in industry segment growth, state and regional sales growth, workforce outlook and consumer and menu trends. That forecast appears to be mostly sunny for the 960,000 U.S. restaurants, which rake in more annual sales than 90 percent of the world's economies.

"As the national economy is slowly improving, the restaurant industry is climbing out of its most challenging period in decades to post positive real sales growth in 2011," said Hudson Riehle, SVP of the Research and Knowledge Group for the National Restaurant Association. "While pockets of challenges remain, we are looking forward to a brighter future in 2011."