Slow Growth Seen For Restaurant Market

Slow Growth Seen For Restaurant Market

The restaurant market will continue to grow slowly over the next four years, but a projected annual growth rate of just over 3 percent beats the 2 percent average of the prior four years, an exclusive report compiled for National Underwriter by MarketStance reveals.

In addition to growth rates, the Middleton, Conn.-based MarketStance reports $5 billion in premiums for the sector falling predominately in the full-service restaurant and limited-service (no wait service) categories.

MarketStances business demographic forecasts start from employment forecasts from www.Economy.com, a macroeconomic forecasting firm in Philadelphia, according to Frederick Yohn, the founder of MarketStance, which develops market analysis tools for property-casualty insurers.

“For service and retail industries such as restaurants, their employment forecasts for a particular county are based upon a combination of recent employment growth and household demographic trends for the area. Thus, employment in restaurants in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., is projected to grow much faster than in Hartford, Conn., largely reflecting the continuing influx of new residents,” he wrote in an explanatory e-mail.

County-specific forecasts are added to develop the overall forecasts.

Reproduced from National Underwriter Edition, January 16, 2004. Copyright 2004 by The National Underwriter Company in the serial publication. All rights reserved.Copyright in this article as an independent work may be held by the author.