If you’re like most operators, you’ve reduced your menu to better cope with increased food costs, supply chain disruptions, and labor shortages. Adding in unique limited-time offers (LTOs) can help infuse life into pared-down menus. These specials not only create a buzz, but they also provide an opportunity to stimulate traffic and sales.
Over half (54%) of restaurant operators say that LTOs are a central part of their business1, and many (43%) launch an LTO anywhere from every month to every three months.2 Look for ways to improve LTO visibility while boosting profitability with these four tips. Click here to read the full article.
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The holiday season breaks up the monotony of winter by adding festivity and cheer. Families look for ways to make the holidays spread further. They might take their kids Christmas shopping downtown or gather together for tree-lighting ceremonies. Restaurants can capitalize on seasonal festivities by getting in on the fun.
Transforming your restaurant into a winter wonderland can draw people into the warmth of your building. Instead of being one of many potential stops while people are out and about, you can become the go-to restaurant in your area for people who want to celebrate the season. Click here to read the full article. Market research firm IRI predicts that your Thanksgiving meal will cost about 13.5% more compared to last year, based on how retail prices in the four weeks through October 16 compared to the same period in 2021. IRI measures items including turkey and other meat, baking essentials, beverages and popular side dishes in its list of Thanksgiving foods.
Even if retailers offer promotions in the weeks or days leading up to the holiday, those prices will still likely be higher than in the same period a year ago, said Alastair Steel, executive of IRI Client Engagement. Click here to read the full article. Despite persistent challenges, most restaurant operators are optimistic about the holiday season11/4/2022 The restaurant industry has historically performed well in Q4, generating an uptick in traffic as more people venture out to shop or socialize. The pandemic turned that trend on its head in 2020 and again last year amid the omicron surge.
This year’s holiday season arrives with some new challenges, including persistent inflation and labor shortages. Recent data from Alignable finds that holiday hiring is down nearly 40% versus last year, for instance, leaving operators to scramble to cover hours. Because of these challenges, nearly half of small restaurant owners are having a hard time covering rent costs. Click here to read the full article. Job openings surged in September despite Federal Reserve efforts aimed at loosening up a historically tight labor market that has helped feed the highest inflation readings in four decades.
Employment openings for the month totaled 10.72 million, well above the FactSet estimate for 9.85 million, according to data Tuesday from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey. Click here to read the full article. The combination of rising prices, increased costs of living and ongoing social upheaval prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in financial problems for many consumers. As a result, consumers are growing thriftier and changing their behavior, according to NielsenIQ.
The consumer packaged goods (CPG) industry insights company identified five key trends that may last into 2023. Click here to read the full article. North America’s leading premium dessert company, today closed the acquisition of Dianne’s Fine Desserts, a leading provider of premium frozen thaw-and-serve desserts, from Geneva Glen Capital. The acquisition expands Dessert Holdings’ assortment of products supplied to the foodservice industry. Financial terms of the private transaction were not disclosed. Founded over 40 years ago, Dianne’s innovative product line includes cheesecakes, layer cakes, pies and tarts, brownies and bars, individual minis and specialty desserts using high quality ingredients and chef inspired craftsmanship. Dianne’s operates two Global Food Safety Initiative-certified manufacturing facilities. Click here to read the full article.
Commercial turkey facilities in Minnesota are getting hammered by highly pathogenic avian influenza, with HPAI confirmed on Thursday at sites in Le Sueur and Stearns counties, according to the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.
A total of 20,100 birds were affected at the Le Sueur producer, while the facility in Stearns lost 75,000 turkeys, the APHIS tally stated as of Monday. A commercial turkey meat producer in Swift, Minn., lost 33,800 birds after HPAI was confirmed at the site on Tuesday. HPAI has been confirmed this year in 580 commercial and backyard flocks in 43 states, with 47.86 million birds affected, according to the agency. The ongoing outbreaks have the U.S. edging closer to the record set in the nation’s deadliest HPAI onslaught in 2015, when 50.5 chickens and turkeys perished. Inflationary pressures and other global uncertainties are prompting pork companies to carefully manage production in the fourth quarter, according to a new report from Rabobank.
Pork processors have already built inventory to satisfy a modest rebound from the third quarter. Holiday sales of pork products are expected to test the market’s resilience and its ability to absorb premiums, the Rabobank analysis noted. Value-conscious consumers already are seeking out lower-value cuts and trading down from branded to private-label alternatives at retail, adding to further weakness to premium product markets, the report added. Rabobank analysts also predicted that weaker economic growth expectations will likely impact pork trade volumes in the fourth quarter and into early 2023. With inflation still outpacing wage growth, lower real wages also are expected to negatively impact overall protein consumption in the current quarter and into the first half of 2023, the report said. Grocery inflation is hot now, but USDA economists are predicting a big chill in 2023. Grocery food prices in September were up 13% compared with year-ago levels, according to the latest Food Price Outlook report from the USDA. That was much higher than the all-items consumer inflation rate of 8.2% compared with a year ago, the USDA said. Click here to read the full article.
Sales growth held strong for the restaurant industry this September — continuing a two-month streak of positive gains after unseasonably low sales growth results in June and July. September same-store sales growth was +5.2%, just a minor dip from the +5.3% reported in August. Steep declines in gas prices and the moderation of inflation rates appear to be the reasons behind the bolstered sales growth numbers. Click here to read the full article.
Staffing shortfalls and other lingering effects of the pandemic have prompted the typical U.S. restaurant to cut its hours by an average of 6.4 hours per week since 2019, according to a new report from the research company Datassential.
A study by the firm shows the rollbacks in operating times are particularly severe for full-service restaurants. Casual-dining restaurants typically cut their hours by 8.9 hours per week, or almost an entire 11 a.m. to 11 p.m shift. Click here to read the full article. This winter will mark the first time in the history of U.S. management that the Bering Sea snow crab fishery will be closed.
While other crab stocks have been declining in the North Pacific for years, the snow crab fishery’s collapse is doubly shocking for the industry. Not only is it one of the larger crab fisheries by volume in Alaska, it has also gone from booming and healthy to overfished and collapsing within five years, with little warning or clear explanation. Fishermen who made investments in permits and boats less than five years ago are now looking at bankruptcy. To read the full article, click here. Food was the No. 1 wallet priority for male spending at 23% share, according to Piper Sandler’s Fall Taking Stock with Teens survey, while clothing (30%) outranked food (21%) to capture the highest level of female wallet share since 2012.
The survey highlights discretionary spending trends and brand preferences from 14,500 teens with an average age of 15.8 years. Click here to read the full article. Americans are increasingly noticing higher prices for groceries and restaurants and are reacting by trading down.
That’s according to a new study by Yelp that analyzed user searches and reviews in the third quarter and found that more people were searching for affordable food and restaurant options as their angst over prices grew. Year-over-year inflation actually eased slightly in the quarter after peaking at 9.1% in June, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, and gas prices came down. But September’s 8.2% inflation was higher than expected, and Yelp users’ price complaints grew louder during the period. Click here to read the full article from Restaurant Business. Drawing comparisons to the damage wrought by Hurricane Irma in 2017, Hurricane Ian’s damage to Florida crops and livestock has been estimated by University of Florida economists from $787 million to $1.56 billion.
Vegetables and citrus were hard hit by Hurricane Ian in late September, according to the preliminary analysis, available online. Despite heavy flooding prohibiting full assessments of some fields, the researchers predicted economic impacts to citrus, vegetables and livestock from Hurricane Ian, which hit southwest Florida Sept. 28. Click here to read the full article. Enjoying a glass of freshly-squeezed orange juice is about to get more expensive.
Central Florida, home to sprawling citrus groves responsible for the vast production of fresh oranges and orange juice across the country, took a hit when Hurricane Ian recently ravaged the state. The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) said it could result in record lows for the orange crop. Click here to read the full article. Driver turnover at private fleets jumped this year to nearly 23%, a record spike, according to the National Private Truck Council’s annual benchmarking survey of 104 private fleets across the U.S.
Despite a year marked by capacity constraints in many areas, including equipment and component shortages, driver shortages and rising diesel fuel prices, private fleets reported growth. In 2022, the private fleets surveyed in NPTC’s 2022 Benchmarking Survey increased shipments by about 10% from last year and increased volume by about 7%. The value of shipments also rose by 11.5%. Click here to read the full article. A study on the potential for cross-contaminating kitchen surfaces with pathogens during food preparation has pointed to an unlikely culprit for spreading sickness: spice containers. To read the full article, click here.
While food delivery on demand is here to stay, restaurants may still find it makes more sense to focus on their takeout business given consumers’ shifting preference for pickup. Click here to read the full article.
The restaurant industry remains about 500,000 employees short of pre-pandemic numbers. A new report from Alignable indicates that this labor picture will be even more challenged for small business owners as they head into the holiday season. According to Alignable’s Holiday Hiring Report, just 7% of small business owners across all industries are recruiting help for Q4, which is down from last year’s seasonal hiring rate of 36%. Click here to read the full article from Nation's Restaurant News.
Kraft Heinz CEO Miguel Patricio says higher inflation and supply issues are coursing through the food industry, forcing companies to adopt new strategies for everything from production to promotion to packaging.
And he doesn’t see an end to either issue anytime soon. “We’ve already increased the prices that we were expecting this year, but I’m predicting that next year, inflation will continue, and as a consequence [we] will have other rounds of price increases,” Patricio said in an interview with CNN Business. Click here to read the full article from CNN Business. California’s tomato farmers are getting squeezed by water crisis as growing costs continue to rise10/18/2022 Take a summertime drive on Interstate 5 through the heart of the Golden State and it is nearly impossible to miss the truckloads of tomatoes being hauled straight from harvest to production.
This year, however, fewer tomatoes were grown as rising interest rates, inflation and the crushing drought squeezed farmers who saw their margins sliced and diced. While the cost of growing tomatoes continues to rise, it’s ultimately hitting consumers in the wallet as well. Click here to read the full article from CNN. After 80% population drop in 4 years, Alaska cancels snow crab season in unprecedented move10/17/2022 Alaska officials have canceled several crab harvests in a conservation effort that sent shock waves through the crabbing industry in the region.
Officials canceled the fall Bristol Bay red king crab harvest and, for the first time on record, are holding off on the winter harvest of snow crab, according to multiple reports. Click here to read the full article from USA Today. When the weather gets colder, food gets hotter. There’s a whole world of hot, spicy dishes—but some of them are just starting to get attention on U.S. menus.
Today’s diners have an appetite for international cuisine and heat. Datassential found that one-third of consumers want to try new global foods, and 42 percent seek out spice. Restaurants can vary their winter menus by experimenting with emerging global stars that bring the heat. Click here to read the full article. |
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