At last, business for those in the catering industry is returning to normal.
When the pandemic hit and lockdowns were the order of the day, many in the food and beverage business did what has become known as a pivot.
They shifted to take-out or curbside pickup and, while that didn’t totally replace the volume of activity they experienced while their outlets were completely functional, it helped.
But not so for one part of the food business – catering. They simply had no way to pivot. Their business model was always based on take-out, answering the food needs of participants in corporate meetings.
Basically, they tended not to cater to the broader consumer market but, when offices were closed, there simply were no meet-goers to feed when they shifted to Zoom gatherings.
But the newest numbers on food and beverage sales in this country issued by Statistics Canada suggest that the worst is over for caterers. Their revenues rose 75 per cent in the past year, compared to annual gains of roughly 20 per cent for places such as bars or sit-down restaurants.
