Numbers dining out drop 10%, finds survey

THERE has been a 10% decrease in the number of people eating out over the past six months, new figures show.

And almost half of the restaurants who took part in the survey said the decline in business was worse than what they had expected.

Results of the business survey were revealed at the Restaurant Association of Ireland’s (RAI) annual conference in Maynooth, Co Kildare, yesterday.

The survey of 600 restaurants also found that consumer spend had decreased by between 15% and 20%

RAI chief executive, Adrian Cummins said that consumers were still dining out but the diner was looking for value for money.

“Restaurants are having to increase their marketing spend to readjust to the current climate,” he said.

But as well as dealing with very challenging times, the cost of doing business was increasing on a weekly basis.

The association is urging the Government to seriously address the issues that affect the Irish restaurant industry that employs 64,000 people and contributes e2 billion to the economy.

“Our results show that the cost of operating a restaurant is continuously increasing with Ireland now becoming the most expensive place to do business,” he said.

He said restaurants paid their staff one of the highest wage rates within the European hospitality sector and were obliged to charge customers rates of VAT and excise duty that were again at the top of the EU league.

“Our food input costs are 24% higher than the EU average. The Irish restaurant sector cannot continue within such a regime.”

The study showed that most of the restaurants surveyed expected to see a bottoming out of the decline late this year with positive growth in 2010.

Mr Cummins said restaurants needed to be able to survive these challenging times so they would be still in business when the economy started to pick up again.

“We want the Government to intervene and reduce the regulatory burden affecting not just restaurants, but small to medium enterprises throughout the country,” he said.