TORONTO — Restaurants Canada, in partnership with CGA, have shared data regarding on-premise sales and consumer trends for February 2022 in its COVID-19: Sales On-Premise Impact Report.
Some report highlights include:
- Canada has experienced double-digit growth in both of the last two weeks in February;
- Latest trends in Canada are driven by increases in both traffic (up six per cent) and check value (up 11 per cent);
- All key provinces saw strong daily trends on Valentine’s Day, with triple-figure uplifts of each key province versus the previous Monday;
- On-premise consumer trends remain strong compared to previous years, with Canada as a whole up 58 per cent versus last year’s comparable week;
- Venues are seeing value velocity similar to pre-pandemic levels, with B.C. up seven percent, Quebec up three per cent, Alberta down three per cent and Ontario down 15 per cent;
- Three in four consumers have visited restaurants and/or bars for food-led occasions in February (up seven per cent versus January), compared to one in four doing so for drink-led occasions;
- Eighty-one per cent of consumers said they will visit food-led occasions over the next month (up 24 per cent versus January), while 32 per cent said they will visit for drink-led occasions (up five per cent versus January);
- Beer remains the most consumed drink category in bars and restaurants
“All of our polling showed that dining out was something consumers missed most during the pandemic. We expect some hesitation, but the majority of consumers are eager and excited to get back out there,” says James Rilett, vice-president, Central Canada, Restaurants Canada. “[On the operational side,] restaurant owners have been talking to their employees and their customers to figure out what they want out of the restaurant experience moving forward, including safety precautions.”
For 2022, Rilett says Restaurants Canada is forecasting roughly $76 billion in sales, an increase of 16.5 per cent over 2021.
