Eating out on the up

Cape Town - Restaurants and fast food outlets did a roaring trade in October, with patrons spending R3.95bn on food and drink, a survey released by SA Statistics shows.

A table included in the monthly survey shows this is the third-highest spending on food and beverages at such enterprises over the past 70 months (from January 2009). The two higher figures were for the months of December last year and the year before.

Of the R3.95bn income, restaurants and coffee shops took about R1.8bn, take-away and fast food outlets about R1.5bn and catering services R660m. The figures include bar sales.

Food sales

"Measured in nominal terms (current prices), total income generated by the food and beverages industry increased by 11.5% in October 2014 compared with October 2013. The highest annual growth rate was recorded for food sales (13%).

"In October 2014, the highest annual growth rates were recorded for take-away and fast-food outlets (15.2% and contributing 5.5 percentage points) and restaurants and coffee shops (11% and contributing 5.0 percentage points)."

Last year a total of R42.94bn was spent at restaurants, coffee shops and fast food outlets, as well as on catering services.

The survey figures are based on data received from a sample of 900 enterprises around the country.