Restaurant and catering is a dynamic but dispersed industry. There are currently 37,700 restaurant and catering businesses in Australia, employing 200,000 Australians.
In 2006 the industry accounted for 1.3% of GDP and had a total turnover of $12.8 Billion – up 12.8% on the 2002 Calendar year.
A report released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics in July 2005 (the most recent report in a five-yearly series) shows a slowing in restaurant profits with 63.4% of businesses (the businesses employing less than 10 people) generating less than 2% net profit.
In 2006, businesses in the sector contributed more than $12.8 Billion to the economy (12.6% increase on 2003 figures) and restaurant and take –away meals made up 15% of overall tourism consumption and a staggering 19.6% of domestic tourism spend (the HIGHEST of all spend categories)
It is dominated by small businesses – in 2004-05 91% of industry businesses employed less than 20 employees.
It is also a very competitive industry, with few barriers to entry and often low profit margins as a result. Many new entrants lack the business skills needed to survive.
About 94%of businesses (registered active for the GST) turn over less than $1 million per year – and a mere eight individual businesses turn over $20 million or more.
Business profits are highly sensitive to rises in labour and production costs. The two largest expense items are purchases ($2917 million) and labour costs ($2109 million) which represented 43% and 31%respectively of total expenses.
CUISINE STYLES:
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%
WORKFORCE:
- 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
SOURCES OF INFORMATION:
* The Australian Foodservice Market, 6th Edition, 1998-2000, BIS Shrapnel
* ABS Business Counts, 2005, Restaurant & Catering Australia
* Cafes and Restaurants Industry Survey, ABS 8655.0