This morning Stats Canada reports that restaurant sales are still rising in 2019 versus 2018. Given new restaurants opening up, and changing tastes some restaurants are certainly facing lower sales but the industry overall is doing okay.
Sales of the food services and drinking places subsector increase in the third quarter
The figures in this section are based on unadjusted (that is, not seasonally adjusted) estimates.
Unadjusted sales in the food services and drinking places subsector were up 2.5% in the third quarter of 2019 compared with the same quarter of 2018. Sales increased at full-service restaurants (+2.9%), limited service restaurants (+2.4%) and special food services (+2.8%); sales at drinking places fell by 2.6%. Sales increased in nine provinces, with the largest gains in dollar terms being in Ontario (+2.6%), Quebec (+2.8%), British Columbia (+1.9%) and Alberta (+2.4%). Sales declined slightly in Saskatchewan (-0.2%).
Prices for food purchased from restaurants were up 2.7% in the third quarter of 2019 compared with the third quarter of 2018 and prices for alcoholic beverages served in licensed establishments were up 1.3% in the same period. Similarly, prices for food purchased from restaurants were up 2.7% in September 2019 compared with September 2018, whereas prices for alcoholic beverages served in licensed establishments were up 1.0%.”
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Statistics Canada also reports weaker manufacturing sales:
“Manufacturing sales declined 1.3% to $172.0 billion in the third quarter. In volume terms, manufacturing sales fell 1.0% in the third quarter, mostly due to lower volumes sold in the petroleum and coal product (-2.4%), food (-1.5%) and chemical (-1.9%) industries.”
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Markets are little changed this morning.
CRH Medical has announced it exercised its option to acquire 51% of a practice it has helped develop. This is another in a string of small acquisitions and suggests that CRH’s growth strategy remains on track.
P.S. Shortly after posting this I added a little to my CRH position.