NPD study: Independent restaurants increased spending with broadline distributors
Independent restaurant operators represent a third of broadline foodservice distribution dollars, and their spending has increased year-over-year for the past two years.
Despite declining unit counts for the last two years, independent restaurant operators represent a third of broadline foodservice distribution dollars, and their spending has increased year-over-year for the past two years, according to a study produced by The NPD Group, Port Washington, N.Y.
The number of commercial independent restaurants dropped by 2% to 336,545 units from fall 2014 to fall 2015, based on NPD’s fall 2015 restaurant census, which includes restaurants open as of Sept. 30, 2015. Although their numbers dwindled, independent operators increased their spending with broadline foodservice distributors in 2015 by 3% and by 5% in 2014, according to NPD’s SupplyTrack, a monthly tracking service that tracks every product shipped from major foodservice broadline distributors to over 500,000 commercial and non-commercial operators. Much of the spending lift in 2014 was due to an increase in the cost of ingredients. Without the purchasing power of restaurant chains and benefit of contract pricing, independents bore the brunt of the ingredient price increases. Commodity ingredient prices stabilized in 2015, and the 3% spending growth rate of independents is reflective of organic growth.