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PENNSYLVANIA
RESTAURANT & LODGING
matters
•
Winter 2017
INDUSTRY
OUTLOOK
IN 2016, A YEAR THAT THE
INDUSTRY SHOULD HAVE
EXPERIENCED GROWTH,
but did
not, we heard a lot from operators,
especially restaurant independents
that were disheartened with the
state of affairs in their business.
Key concerns were government
overregulation, shortage of labor,
extreme minimum wage and benefit
legislation and increased competition.
Consumer discretionary spending,
critical to restaurants and the travel
and tourism industries, should have
been up in conjunction with lower gas
prices, but instead was down due to
severely eroded consumer confidence.
And then an election happened, and
November saw the first positive
restaurant same store sales growth
of the year and consumer confidence
soared. Assuming President Trump
can deliver on at least some of his
promises, we would expect the
beginning of a resurgence in the
industry. The nomination of CKE
Restaurants CEO Andy Puzder as
Labor Secretary certainly indicates that
our new president understands the
importance of the hospitality industry
to the American economy.
The forecasted repeal and replace
of the Affordable Care Act and the
promised reduction in government
regulations both bring a huge sigh
of relief from operators. I moderated
a foodservice CEO panel the night
following the election and asked the
CEOs on the panel if they planned to
do anything different as a result of the
election and one replied that he had
planned 10 new restaurants that had
previously been placed on hold that,
based on the election outcome, were
now back in development.
By the way, 2016 was a great year for
our association. We showed significant
growth, performed well against an
aggressive financial plan,
and
had key
legislative victories. Ironically, though,
2016 wasn’t as good for many of our
members’ businesses. Here’s to a 2017
that is equally successfully and happy
for PRLA
and
its fantastic members. If
optimism is any indication, we’re in for
a great year.
Warm regards,
John Longstreet
President & CEO
“November saw
the first positive
restaurant same store
sales growth of the
year and consumer
confidence soared.”
John Longstreet
And then, everything changed…