Restaurant industry same-store sales were up in April but dippedslightly compared to the prior month due to a decline in guesttraffic and a mid-month drop-off, according to the latestNRN-MillerPulse survey. MillerPulse, an operator survey exclusive to Nation"sRestaurant News, included respondents from 63 restaurant operatorsin May regarding April sales, profit trends, performance andoutlooks. Respondents included operators from all regions of thecountry that represent the quick-service, casual-dining,fine-dining and fast-casual segments. Those surveyed in Mayrepresented restaurants that booked about 16 percent of industrysales. Industry same-store sales were up 3.2 percent in April, down a fullpercentage point from March"s 4.2-percent increase, thesurvey found. Quick-service restaurants, which include bothfast-food and fast-casual brands, saw a solid sales increase of 4.6percent for the month, but the number was slightly disappointingcompared to the 6.0-percent increase the segment saw in March. However, full-service restaurants, which include both fine-diningand casual-dining brands, had a more difficult month. Same-storesales increased 1.6 percent for the segment in April, compared tothe 2.1-percent increase in March, the survey found. EARLIER: Restaurant comps remain steady in March, operators expect strongApril The less-than-spectacular performance in April following anoptimistic outlook going into the month and a strong start duringits first half has left both operators and analysts perplexed. "There is nothing you can point to that says the economychanged in a week, and the weather effect we have seen the lastseveral months is gone," said Larry Miller, restaurantsecurities analyst at RBC Capital Markets and creator of themonthly MillerPulse surveys. "I think it more has to do witha calendar shift of the dates of Easter and spring break." The survey found that while guest traffic was up 0.9 percentoverall in April, that figure was down from the 2.3-percent gain inMarch and both quick-service and full-service restaurants struggledwith slower traffic. Quick-service traffic was up 2.1 percent forthe month, compared to a more than 4.0-percent increase in March.Full-service restaurants saw a 0.6-percent decline in traffic,compared to nearly flat numbers the month prior. However, the disappointing sales and traffic numbers haven"tdampened operators optimism, with a net 34 percent of operatorssurveyed saying that they expect sales to be better in May versusApril, a high for the survey in 2012. That number was calculated bythe 43 percent of operators who feel that things will be better inMay versus the 9 percent that believe they will get worse. "That"s what"s most interesting about thismonth"s results," Miller said. "It"s thedrop we saw and the optimism of operators, which might be difficultto swallow." Full-service operators continued the trend from last month as beingthe most optimistic, with a net 39 percent of them expecting bettersales in May, compared to a net 30 percent of quick-serviceoperators who felt the same way. And while Miller might not be as staunchly positive in his outlookas some of the operators surveyed, he isn"t panicking either. "When you step back and look at the 2-year trend, we arestill in an uptrend, but just not as strong," he said."Things are still on track, but when we see a drop-off likewe did in the second half of April, doubt starts to creepin." Register for MillerPulse at /industry-insight. Contact Charlie Duerr at charles.duerr@penton.com . We are high quality suppliers, our products such as Playground Equipment Slide Manufacturer , China Screamin Swing for oversee buyer. To know more, please visits Playground Equipment Merry Go Round.
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