How many people (on average) dine out in Sydney Australia each week?

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Request for Question Clarification by pafalafa-ga on 02 Apr 2005 08:49 PST

snf40-ga,

I don't see an actual statistic that addresses your question BUT, I
believe a reasonable estimate could be made based on some national
statistics.

For instance, I could take national numbers (number of restaurants in
Australia, total sales, average cost per meal, etc) along with
information about the percent of people and business carried out in
Sydney relative to the whole country, to arrive at the number of
restaurant meals served in a week.

Would that sort of estimate meet your needs?


Let me know.


pafalafa-ga

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Clarification of Question by snf40-ga on 02 Apr 2005 17:10 PST

Yes this would still be helpful. As long as you can include the
figures and logic that lead to your answer, so that I can explain how
the number was arrived at, as this is very important.

Any statistics on the volume of people dining out in Sydney, meals
served in restaurants in Sydney, restaurant numbers in sydney would be
very helpful.

The information is to be used in a business case for a new business
that will target people that dine out in Sydney, so I need as much
information as possible that gives me figures in relation to marketing
that business.

Thank you for your assistance

snf40-ga,


Thanks for a challenging question, and for your clarification about
what you need.  I think you'll find the numbers I provide below both
interesting and useful.


I've laid out my calculations clearly (I hope) but if you have any
questions at all about what I've done, or where the numbers came from,
just let me know by posting a Request for Clarification, and I'll be
happy to provide additional information.

All the best in your endeavors.


pafalafa-ga



============================


The best overview of the restaurant industry in Australia is from this
2003 presentation (oddly enough, at a conference on text-messaging)
given by the president of the Restaurant & Catering Industry
Association of Australia:


http://www.amta.org.au/amta/site/amta/downloads/Congress%202003/FRI%201220%20John%20Hart%20-%20AMTA%20Conference.ppt
[CAUTION:  This takes a long time to download, even at broadband speeds]


The presentation is on the use of technology in the restaurant
industry, but it includes the following overview statistics on the
restaurant industry in Australia:


--There are 28,900 restaurant businesses in the country

--94% are small businesses (income of less than $500,000 per year)

--The industry serves 560 million meals per year

--On a weekly basis, the industry serves 10.7 million meals to 5.94
million customers

[Additional stats from this same presentation are not germane to the
calculations that follow, but are probably of interest just the same,
and I have presented these below]




==========



So, we have a picture of the industry in the country as a whole.


The next question becomes:  What percent of Australian restaurant
meals are served in Sydney?


For this, we can turn to business statistics section of the New South
Wales government pages:



http://www.business.nsw.gov.au/factsReports.asp?cid=32&subCid=92
Employed Persons by Industry, 2004 
 
 
The statistics on employment in the industry sector for
"Accommodation, cafes and restaurants" shows us that:


104,000 people are employed in this sector in Sydney

and

472,000 are employed nationwide in Australia.



Thus, Sydney alone accounts for:


104000 / 472000 =  22% of the nation's total restaurant activity.

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NOTE:  This estimate actually jives pretty well with other statistics
presented at the NSW Business site.  For instance, data at:
http://www.smallbiz.nsw.gov.au/frame.cfm?l=/services/statistics/links.html&r=/services/statistics/index.html
says that NSW accounts for 33.2% of all small business activity in
Australia, and that Sydney (and its surroundings) accounts for 66% of
small business activity in NSW.  Therefore, Sydney's proportion of
small business relative to the whole country would be:
.667 * .332 = .221 
which is 22.1%, or pretty much the same number we estimated for restaurants alone.
-----



Knowing that Sydney accounts for 22% of the nation's restaurant
business allows a calculation of total meals and total customers
served:


10.7 million meals per week in Australia  * 22% = 2,354,00 restaurant
meals per week in Sydney.

5.94 million customers per week * .22 = 1,306,800 people served in
restaurants in Sydney every week

Each person is served an average of 10.7/5.94 = 1.8 meals per person.



Q.E.D.


======================



In the course of my searching, I came across other statistics that may
be of interest to you.  They are presented in no particular order
below:


----------

A report on the industry from the Australian Bureau of Statistics is
fairly dated, but nevertheless includes useful breakouts of dining
habits -- eat-in vs take-out, etc.


http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/b06660592430724fca2568b5007b8619/7b551e3538ad3811ca25695b00009159!OpenDocument
8655.0 Cafes and Restaurants Industry, Australia
 

Income  
Takings from meals consumed on the premises ($m) 3,947.7 
Takings from take-away food ($m) 444.6 
Takings from catering services ($m) 1,264.7 
Takings from beverages ($m) 1,117.2 
Other income ($m) 400.0 
Total income ($m) 7,174.3 

----------


Here are stats from 2001 along with some breakouts of restaurant types:



http://www.restaurantcater.asn.au/facts.asp

--The ATO reported that 29,551 businesses had registered for the GST
by the beginning of the 2001 calendar year.

--The industry turns over $9.3 Billion and spends $2.917 Billion on
wages and salaries and $2.9 Billion on food product.


--According to BIS Shrapnel, the percentage of restaurants in each
cuisine style is as follows:


Modern Australian 36.1%

Chinese 14.5%

Seafood 9.2%

Italian 9.1%

Thai 4.0%

French 2.0%

Japanese 1.9%

Malaysian 1.1%

Greek 1.0%

Other 21.1%



91% of all restaurants and cafes employ less than 20 persons

48% of the workforce all either part time or casual

25% of the full time workforce are working proprietors or partners

55% of the workforce are female - 33% are full time

45% of the workforce are male - 58% are full time

70% of the workforce have no post-school qualifications

16.5% have vocational qualifications

5% have a degree or higher qualification


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The most recent figures for industry sales in 2004 indicate a rapid
climb from earlier years, up to $12 billion.  Here's the citation:


http://www.restaurantcater.asn.au/dynapage/images/1000807.doc

...The calendar year 2004 is on-track to exceed the $12 Billion mark


-----------


Some useful economic and labor stats can be seen here:


http://www.restaurantcater.asn.au/dynapage/images/1000733.doc.
The Restaurant, Café and Catering Industry
 

...In the first report...for July 2001, showed a total number of
28,925 restaurant businesses in Australia. This equates to a slight
(2%) decrease on the 2000 result.


...The Australian Bureau of Statistics Business Counts report the
turnover band of businesses State by State. In overall terms, the
majority of restaurant and café businesses (57%) turnover between
$100,000 and $499,000. Nearly 95% turnover under half a million
dollars per annum and less than 2,000 (1,756) restaurant businesses
across the nation turnover more than this amount. Only 8 restaurant
businesses turnover more than $20 million compared to 64 clubs and 16
hotels.


...In the November quarter of 2003, 239,000 people were employed in
restaurants and cafes in Australia. This represented an 8.1% increase
on the number employed 12 months earlier (221,000). In this period the
restaurant and café industry accounted for 2.5% of Australia's
workforce and 4.7% of the part time workforce.
[NOTE:  The labor figures I used above to compare Sydney to Australia
as a whole included hotel and other service employees, so are
considerably larger than the numbers used in this paragraph here]


---------


Some additional perspective on Sydney and NSW can be found here:



http://www.smallbiz.nsw.gov.au/frame.cfm?l=/services/statistics/links.html&r=/services/statistics/index.html


--66% of NSW small businesses are in Sydney and the Central Coast
(Gosford-Wyong) region, and the remaining 34% are in the other regions
of NSW.

--Of those in Sydney, 27% are close to the centre of the city (in the
Inner Sydney, Inner Western Sydney, Eastern Suburbs and Lower Northern
Sydney area) and 30% are in the rest of Western Sydney.


--In 2000-01, there were 372,500 small businesses in NSW.  This was
33.2% of all the small businesses in Australia and was more than in
any other State.  Small businesses made up 97% of all the businesses
in NSW.

--In 2000-01, 1,083,400 people worked in NSW small businesses.  This
was 33.2% of all the people working in small businesses in Australia
and again was more than in any other State.


----------


As mentioned earlier, the same presentation that I started with also
included other statistics of interest:



http://www.amta.org.au/amta/site/amta/downloads/Congress%202003/FRI%201220%20John%20Hart%20-%20AMTA%20Conference.ppt


--Overall sales (turnover) for the industry was $9.3 billion at the
time of the presentation (NOTE: it has since increased to $12 billion
in 2004 as I mentioned above)

--The industry's customer base is 55% female, and more than 50% of
customers are in the 25-45 year old age group.

--Customers have an average income of $63,500.


======


I trust this information fully answers your question, and I hope it
has been presented in a satisfactory and clear manner.

However, please don't rate this answer until you have everything you
need.  As I said earlier, if you would like any additional
information, just post a Request for Clarification to let me know how
I can assist you further, and I'm at your service.

All the best,

pafalafa-ga



search strategy -- Google searches on:


[ restaurant meals australia statistics ]
[ restaurant industry statistics site:au ]
(restaurant OR restaurants) ("million meals" OR "million * meals" OR
"million ** meals") site:au

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Clarification of Answer by pafalafa-ga on 03 Apr 2005 16:22 PDT

I forgot to mention this little tidbit, which I thought would be of
interest as well:


http://www.restaurantcater.asn.au/profile.asp

Doyles Seafoods owns and operates four restaurants and 2 hotels.
Currently they employ 350 staff and the restaurants serve over 1.5
million people annually.

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Request for Answer Clarification by snf40-ga on 03 Apr 2005 21:05 PDT

Thank you so much for this incredibly detailed response, this
information will greatly boost the strength of the business case, but
I do have one clarification as well as one of piece of data that I
wonder if was mention anywhere in your investigations that I would
like your comments on before I rate your answer

1. Do these statistic include meals served in places such as
McDonalds, KFC, Pizza Hut etc which do call themselves "Restaurants"
despite the fact that these businesses are not the type of businesses
I am considering for my target customer in this new business.

2. Another statistic that I would really like to know is what portion
of dinners actually book the restaurant as opposed to simply turning
up on the spot. I realise this statistic would be very hard to obtain
and am not asking you to do any further major works, as I understand
it is an entirely seperate question to the one that I have asked you
to answer, but would be a highly regarded piece of information all the
same.

Kind regards
SNF40

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Clarification of Answer by pafalafa-ga on 04 Apr 2005 13:01 PDT

It sounds like you approve of my number-crunching....glad to hear it!

As for your follow-ups:

--It is my understanding that fast food places, by and large, are NOT
included in the stats I provided.  The Australian Bureau of Statistics
has a separate category for "takeaway" dining, and I believe most fast
food places are in this category, and are accounted for separately. 
You can see a description of them here:


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http://www.abs.gov.au/Ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/D4BF48A3CB1D81ECCA256A7D0024F6DB

TAKEAWAY FOOD RETAILING

Statistics for employing businesses mainly engaged in selling takeaway
food have been released as part of the Retail Industry Survey
1998-99.These businesses are classified to class 5125 of the
Australian and New Zealand Industrial Classification (ANZSIC).

The results show that at the end of June 1999 there were 13,121
takeaway food businesses operating at 15,357 retail locations, with an
average floorspace of 89 square metres per location.

...There were 166,612 persons employed in the takeaway food industry,
of which 4% were working proprietors and partners, 19% were full-time
employees, and the majority (77%) were part-time employees...
-----


As you can see, this is a very substantial segment in its own right,
and is treated as independent of the Restaurants/Cafe category.  If
you need still more information on this, let me know, and I'll try to
track down the appropriate contact person at ABS so you can inquire
directly.



--As for a statistic on the numbers that book their table in advance,
I'm sorry, but I looked as thoroughly as I can, and didn't see any
information on this topic.


Let me know if there's anything else I can do for you.


pafalafa-ga

The response time from the reseacher was immediate.  Despite what I
knew was a tough question the reseacher exceeded my expectations, not
only in answering my question in a well thought out and professional
way, but also included additional information that was also very
helpful for my research.  I am truly impressed with this service as to
use a well known market research company for the same purpose would of
cost me 2-3 times what it cost me to use this service! Many Many
thanks to my reseacher for all your fantastic efforts!

According to the  American Express International Survey,  60% of
Australians affluents like to dine out.

Excerpts:

Australians love the outdoors: traveling, sports and eating out.
However, they are quite conservative on financial matters.?

?Australian affluents feel good about their future finances, like to
get out of the house any way they can ? traveling, hobbies, eating out
? and spend on clothes. They intend to keep spending in these areas.?

?They like to dine out. At 60 percent, this rating was less than the
British, but twice that of the Italians (29 percent), and a bit more
than the Mexicans at 50 percent.?

?Australian affluents have very active social lives, as reflected in
their love of eating out, travel, and indulging in special interests,?
said American Express Australia Senior Vice President and Country
Manager John Steward.

http://home3.americanexpress.com/corp/latestnews/ahs.asp

Does this help?

Thanks,
Bobbie7