Brazilian Foodservice Market Continued To Grow As General Economy Slowed

The shine on three of the four so-called BRIC countries—Brazil, Russia, India and China—has dulled the past few years, as has economic growth in emerging markets as a whole. India is the only one of the four forecast to see growth accelerate this year. The Int’l. Monetary Fund just reduced its forecasts for emerging market growth in both 2015 and 2016 before its just concluded semi-annual meeting in Washington, D.C. This year is forecast by the IMF to be the sixth consecutive year of the slowdown in emerging market growth.

Brazil is going through a dramatic slowdown from its average growth in the years before the Great Recession. The country is forecast by both IMF and its own government to be in recession in 2015, with the IMF forecast for real gross domestic product recently revised downward to -1%. Brazil is expected to return to very modest growth in 2016.

Still, according to data from CHD Expert, a global data and analytics company, the foodservice and lodging market in Brazil continued to grow in the years 2010 through 2014 despite the economic challenges the country has faced.

While inflation has been a factor, CHD Expert data puts the cumulative average sales growth rate (CAGR) at 4.92% for the period, with the market in 2014 valued at US$151.1 billion. The number of outlets has also continued to rise, to 480,292 in 2014, with unit growth average 0.65% a year.

Unit growth has been particularly apparent in the limited-service restaurant sector, with CAGR for the five years at 2.2%. Most of that growth has been among smaller independent operators. Annual unit growth averaged 1.2% for hotels. But the Brazilian foodservice market remains dominated in terms of units by full-service operations, cafés, bars and taverns. With 334,746 outlets in 2014, the segment controls nearly 70% of the market units, though its unit CAGR during the five years was only 0.2%.

The number of transactions per day per unit is also up from 70 a day in 2010 to 76 a day in ’14, though the rate of growth for the value of the average bill has grown somewhat more slowly.

CHD Expert, based in Lyon, France, and with U.S. headquarters in Chicago, maintains foodservice, lodging and retail market data on 50 countries worldwide. Those seeking information on the firm’s products can contact Brad Bloom at brad@chd-expert.com.  “””