What you need to know

Canadians are dedicated patrons of foodservice outlets with some 94% who have eaten at a restaurant in the three months leading up to February 2016. However, tightening of budgets means that more consumers are spending in moderation and cutting back on treats – including dining out. As such, the industry will see a softening in terms of sales. Consumer behaviour will skew towards more high-value, high-quality options such as fast casuals where one can save on tipping or coffee shops/grocery stores offering hot foods. Restaurants must therefore continue to understand what motivates consumers to dine out and how to attract those who plan on spending less.

Definition

For the purposes of this Report, Mintel has used the following definitions:

Full-service restaurants – Establishments with waiter/waitress service, in which customers order and are served while seated; may also sell alcoholic beverages and offer carryout services.

Limited-service restaurants – Establishments providing foodservice where customers usually select and order items and pay before dining. Food/drink may be consumed on-premise, offered as carryout or delivered to the customer’s location and may also sell alcoholic beverages. Excludes snack and non-alcoholic beverage bars.

The market size estimates in this Report cover full-service restaurants, limited-service restaurants and other limited-service eating places. These are defined below.

  • Coffee shops: outlets where coffee accounts for a sizeable (usually at least around 40%) part of sales with quite a restricted, mainly packaged, food offer and small amounts, if any, of alcohol.

  • Fast Food and Takeaway: venues that usually have a restricted or set menu, offer takeaways, which account for a significant proportion of turnover and have limited seating (it excludes coffeehouses/shops and other outlets where food sales account for only a small proportion of turnover; and full-service restaurants that generally have large menus which are changed frequently and limited if any takeaway turnover and have waiter/waitress service).

  • Full-service restaurants: full-service/traditional and fast food & takeaway restaurants (the definition includes fast food and limited-service venues, full-service/traditional service venues such as cafés/bistros/brasseries that are not self-service). The full-service/traditional segment usually offers an extensive menu and caters mainly for in-house eaters).

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