Archives for May, 2010
What’s hot in the USA - The Great Foodservice Recession
Peter Backman, Horizons’ MD, reports on current developments on the US foodservice scene from discussions with leading players and news from the National Restaurant Association Show in Chicago:
The natural bounce seems to have gone from the US foodservice sector to be replaced by a pragmatic, almost world-weary, pragmatism. It’s almost a case of Europe taking over the USA.
The US foodservice market is in its third year of decline. The length and depth of this downturn is unprecedented and is the background against which all comments and views about the large US market should be seen.
The good news is that the rate of decline has fallen and may even have bottomed out but there is still enough uncertainty to make any projections problematic.
Nevertheless there are still lessons to be learned from what is happening in the US foodservice market, which is why I make an annual trip to the NRA Show in Chicago. This year booth numbers were about the same as last year - 1,700 or so but down from the 1,900 in 2008. Visitor numbers appeared to be up considerably above last years’ and exhibitors told me that the quality of visitors, and their decision-making responsibilities, were significantly better than last year. I was told: “Visitors are only coming to the show if they really want to do business – they don’t have time to waste”.