MAFSI Reps Forecast 4.1% E&S Growth In 2015

Manufacturers’ reps surveyed for the Manufacturers’ Agents Association for the Foodservice Industry annual forecast, released last week, expect sales of foodservice equipment, supplies and furnishings to grow 4.1% in 2015. Growth is forecast for all five MAFSI regions and across all product categories. The forecast, for the first time, includes forecasts for growth of seven discrete equipment product categories.

Among the regions, reps in the West and Midwest are the most optimistic, predicting sales growth of 4.8% and 4.6%, respectively. Growth in the Northeast is pegged at 4.1% and growth in the South at 4%, while Canadian reps surveyed forecast growth of 3.4% in 2015.

Among the product categories, durable supplies are expected to post 4.7% gains, tabletop to grow 4.3%, equipment sales to rise 4.1% and furnishing growth to lag at 3.1%.

“Though the numbers are beginning to dampen out,” wrote Michael Posternak, principal at Posternak Bauer Associates, Eastchester, N.Y., in his commentary accompanying the report, “the forecast predicts another year of continued growth since the end of The Great Foodservice Recession.”

The complete 16-page forecast, including a section written by FER Publisher Robin Ashton on the magazine’s 2015 forecast, is available at mafsi.org.

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