PMR Research – PMR’s research division (www.research-pmr.com) – conducted a survey in March and April 2010 among over 600 food establishments in Poland. The research was conducted for PMR's report entitled „HoReCa market in Poland 2010. Market analysis and development forecasts for 2010-2012”. Selected findings of the research have been provided below.
Establishments with revenues of less than PLN 50,000 in 2009 make up 45% of the Polish HoReCa market. Slightly more than one-third (35%) of all outlets noted revenues of between PLN 50,000 and PLN 200,000 last year. Every fifth outlet posted revenues of over PLN 200,000.
From the perspective of the location of food establishments, the highest revenues were recorded by food points located in shopping centres – 34% of them realised revenues of over PLN 200,000, and 53% – in the neighbourhood of PLN 50,000-200,000. In turn, the lowest turnover was noted by establishments located in the countryside, away from throughways; for 65% of them, their 2009 revenues did not exceed PLN 50,000.
Over half (55%) of all food establishments noted lower sales in 2009 relative to 2008, every fifth outlet (21%) noted higher sales, and 24% did not notice any change in the value of sales in the period.
Lower turnover haunted four-fifths of outlets in food courts of shopping centres (on average their sales were down by 22%). Furthermore, none of such outlets noted higher sales in 2009. One-quarter of establishments located in city centres and on the main streets disclosed higher sales in 2009 (on average by 18%), in turn slightly over half of outlets in such locations had lower turnover (down by 27% on average). It is worthy to note that among outlets in locations with tourist services (train and bus stations), none posted lower revenues in 2009.
Predictions for 2010 are more upbeat. Only 30% of respondents believe that their revenues will be lower, 37% that they will remain stable. One-third thinks the year will bring higher sales.
The most respondents (41%) that forecast sales growth, is among those whose establishments are located along throughways or petrol stations. From among outlets in shopping centres, 26% expect higher sales this year (average growth of 9%) and 36% lower turnover (down by 20% on average). Higher sales, on average by 21%, were forecast by 38% of outlets located in city centres and along the main streets. Meanwhile, 26% of such locales expect to see lower sales in 2010 (down on average by 24%).
Information on research methodology
The survey was conducted using computer assisted telephone interview (CATI) technique by experienced PMR pollsters who completed 610 full interviews. Respondents were owners or co-owners of food establishments, representing 72% of the sample population, as well as managers or supervisors of the surveyed establishments – accounting for 28% of all respondents. The interviewed establishments fall into six categories:
- Hotel restaurants and bars, or hotels with restaurants open to public.
- Restaurants, defined as food establishments with full or partial waiter service.
- Pizzerias, defined as establishments where pizza is the main element of the menu (i.e. at least a quarter of the menu, which may also include pastas, salads and other dishes), offering waiter service or self-service.
- Fast food bars, lunch bars, snack bars – establishments where the service is quick. The category covers stalls, milk bars, vegetarian bars, and food outlets at petrol stations. Food options vary from pierogi or bigos (traditional Polish dishes), to hamburger, kebab or zapiekanka (halved baguettes topped mainly with mushrooms and cheese, served hot), to pancakes, waffles, salads or sandwiches.
- Cafés, teashops, ice cream parlours – establishments where the range includes tea, coffee, other beverages, cakes, ice cream. There may be snacks on the menu, e.g. sandwiches and salads, but no hot meals are served.
- Pubs, bars, beer houses – establishments serving mainly alcohol beverages; the menu may include snacks and meals (e.g. salads, pastas, soups, sandwiches). Waiter service is not necessary.
We understand the food service market to mean the six segments listed above. All findings reported here refer to the food service market thus defined, and are representative for it owing to the use of a random sampling plan and adequate weighting.
Surveyed outlets were randomly selected from the database of Panorama Firm (Polish yellow pages). Random sampling scheme was applied. The stratifying variable was outlet type, defined according to the aforementioned criteria. In each stratum, the following number of interviews was realised:
After the survey was completed, the findings were weighted for each stratum. This process was based on the assumption that the interviewed outlets are not in any systematic way different to those that were included in the sample, but were not surveyed. The weighting enabled us to formulate precise conclusions about the entire food service market in Poland, defined as before.
Complete results of the research were published in PMR’s newest report entitled „HoReCa market in Poland 2010. Market analysis and development forecasts for 2010-2012”.
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HoReCa market in Poland
