Canada’s commercial foodservice industry ended the year on a sour note as seasonally adjusted sales fell for the third consecutive month in December 2020. This marks the lowest monthly sales since June 2020.
Overall, foodservice sales in Canada were $4.25 billion in December (unadjusted for seasonality), down 35.5% compared to December 2019. Mandated closures of non-essential businesses led to a steep drop in revenues at full-service restaurants (-52%), caterers (-55%) and drinking places (-63%). In contrast, quick-service restaurants were able to rely on off-premise visits to contain the decline to -11.5%.
Provincially, the hardest-hit provinces in December were Quebec (-43%), Ontario (-37%) and Alberta (-37%). There were very few silver linings in the Statistics Canada data. One, however, is that quick-service restaurants in Newfoundland and Labrador and Prince Edward Island posted modestly higher sales in December 2020 compared to December 2019 – up 4.3% and 3.9% respectively.
Overall, foodservice sales in Canada fell by a record 28.2% in 2020 to $55.3 billion. This represents the lowest annual foodservice sales since 2012.
Download your copy of the Monthly Fast Facts here on the member portal.
Restaurants Canada Digital
Nam dapibus nisl vitae elit fringilla rutrum. Aenean sollicitudin, erat a elementum rutrum, neque sem pretium metus, quis mollis nisl nunc et massa. Vestibulum sed metus in lorem tristique ullamcorper id vitae erat.
