Foodservice sales in Japan during April were largely on par with the same month last year, with customer numbers increasing by 2% thanks to firm demand for the fast food sector.
However, spend per customers was down 4.1% in the category, suggesting harsh price competition across the industry leaders.
The Japanese style fast food (mostly gyudon beef rice bowl) and noodles outlets showed similar trends during the month – increased sales (up 6.6% and 8.5% year-on-year) and customer numbers (up 8.% and 11.1%), but reduced spend per customer (down 1.6% and 2.3%), respectively.
The western style (hamburgers) operations also lifted customer numbers (up 2.7%), while it failed to grow sales (down 2.4%).
The yakiniku (Japanese/Korean style barbecue) sector continued its strong recovery in April, improving all sales (up 9.4%), customer numbers (up 7.6%), and expenditure (up 1.6%).
