The data is in. 2020 is off to a hot start!
Restaurants in every segment of the Avero Index enjoyed higher sales in January 2020 compared with sales in January 2019. As mentioned in our methodology post, Avero has three different indices that evaluate restaurant sales performance: the All Avero Index compiles the performance of every qualified U.S. Avero restaurant, the NAT 500 evaluates the performance of Avero’s top performing restaurants, and the NYC 100, which provides a sales performance snapshot of our top performing restaurants in the Big Apple.
Let’s dive into the first index.
January 2020 showed significant growth compared to January last year, showing 4.6% sales increase over the previous year. See graph below for a visual representation of the growth.
January’s real restaurant sales winners were the top 500 restaurants in the U.S. These restaurants experienced a whopping 6.5% performance improvement. Major performance metrics like Average Check and Check Count both saw great improvement from same month last year. Average Check went up by 3.6% and Check Count rose by 2.7%. These two metrics are a recipe for dramatic sales improvement at any restaurant.
The top 100 Avero restaurants in NYC also saw better performance this month compared to the previous year. These restaurants experienced a 3% increase in sales, with Check Count going up by 1.8%.
Though the NYC index does show strong restaurant performance and growth, the numbers fall short when compared to both the All Avero Index and the top 500 in the nation. Despite the fact that at the time of this publication, no cases of Coronavirus have been confirmed in NYC, it’s likely that international travel restrictions and widespread fear of the virus is impacting tourism, including restaurant sales. This New York Times article suggests that restaurants in Manhattan’s Chinatown have been hit particularly hard, with business decreasing by 50-70%. We’ll continue to evaluate NYC restaurant sales as this story develops.
Hope you enjoyed our January edition of the Avero Index analysis.
