Eat up
We’re eating out fit to bust, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics. These figures were sent to me by Restaurant & Catering, the industry’s peak body: “Turnover for January, in restaurants, cafes and caterers, was $1,341.9 billion — a 3.6 per cent jump on last January. This is yet another increase on top of a 7.2 per cent overall increase in 2009 despite the so-called global financial crisis. New South Wales has been a star performer in the restaurant, café and catering sector for the past six months with record on record monthly results. While January was not another record, it was 16.9 per cent up on 2009 at $427.6 million.”
That’s a lot of pork belly. But there is some bad news. According to John Hart, CEO of the organisation, profitability is not increasing with revenue — and it’s still a battle finding good staff. On the other hand, that’s good news for good staff.
