Kids Specific Menu Items Outpacing Overall Sales in Restaurants in 2013

LEESBURG, Va., May 29, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- According to GuestMetrics, kids-specific items outpaced sales of the overall food category during the first quarter of 2013 in full service restaurants.  

"While kids-specific food items are still a fairly small portion of the overall food category in full service restaurants with about 2% of total sales, in analyzing the well over 500 types of kids-specific items we track in our system, our data indicates food geared specifically towards children solidly outperformed the growth of the overall food category," said Bill Pecoriello, CEO of GuestMetrics LLC. "Kids-specific food sales were up about 12% during the first quarter of 2013 versus the 1% growth achieved by the overall food category.  Additionally, the 12% growth was a healthy acceleration from the 4% growth in 2012, so kids-specific food appears to be picking up momentum."

"Looking at the progression of kids-specific food items' share of the overall food category at a quarterly level, it appears there is some seasonality associated with them, which could present operators with an opportunity as we head into summer," said Peter Reidhead, VP of Strategy and Insights at GuestMetrics. "In 2011 and 2012, kids' food items started out with a 1.7% share in 1Q, rose to 1.9% in 2Q, increased further to about 2.1% in 3Q, and then declined back down to 1.7% in 4Q, which is logical given the timing of summer vacation for school-aged children.  Given food accounts for about 65% of total sales in on-premise and has been experiencing little growth, operators could use kid-specific items on the menu as a hook for driving traffic among families."

"While we track well over 500 kids-specific food items in our system, nearly 40% of the sales come from just five items, namely Chicken Fingers, Burgers, Cheese Pizza, Chicken Tenders, and Grilled Cheese Sandwiches," said Brian Barrett, President of GuestMetrics. "Given the high degree of concentration, restaurant operators that currently do not have a kids-specific offering should be able to harness some of the growth by adding a relatively small number of items to the menu."      

About GuestMetrics LLC

GuestMetrics, LLC is revolutionizing how the hospitality industry operates.  Despite the dawn of the Digital Age having begun more than three decades ago, the hospitality industry essentially functions the same way it did centuries before.  GuestMetrics has cracked the code by collecting billions of  dollars in sales from tens of thousands of restaurants, and turning billions of raw transactions into intelligible data that is fundamentally transforming the business operations of everyone from the independently-owned bar/restaurant on the corner, to multi-national chains, to the food & beverage companies that supply them.  Please visit www.GuestMetrics.com for more information and to arrange for a free demonstration.

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SOURCE GuestMetrics LLC