Analyst firm Technomic has revised its forecasts for the remainder of 2020 and into 2021 as the pandemic continues to disrupt the foodservice industry.
The company has presented the data using three scenarios: Best Case, Middle Case and Worst Case.
After a dramatic dip in sales in 2020, Technomic’s Middle Case scenario predicts that the industry will grow by 21% next year but sales are expected to still be down 11% from 2019 industry sales levels.
The company said that depending on scenario, the industry is expected to lose anywhere from $250 billion to almost $300 billion in sales this year compared to 2019.
Quick service is among the segments performing the best, while full-service restaurants, bars, business and industry, travel and leisure, and education are struggling.
Industry prospects going forward are tied directly to medical advances related to COVID-19, such as a vaccine or advanced therapies as well as underlying economic recovery.
“Few industries have felt the repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic quite like foodservice,” said Joe Pawlak, managing principal at Technomic.
“Restrictions are wreaking havoc, especially on the segments that depend upon on-premise consumption. What we are seeing is continued decline for the remainder of the year but aggressive growth in 2021. However, it will still take longer to fully bounce back, and we’ll be updating our forecasts as circumstances continue to shift and evolve.”
