The 2009 National Restaurant Association Restaurant, Hotel-Motel Show, held May 16-19 at Chicago’s McCormick Place, featured new and existing products that included everything from technology and equipment to food and beverage solutions geared toward helping operators from all industry segments improve their business as the economy heads toward recovery.
The four-day event, which attracted an estimated 71,500 attendees and more than 2,200 exhibitors in 2008, saw a significant slimming this year. According to Crain’s Chicago Business, the 2009 show drew about 54,000 attendees representing a drop of 24 percent.
Though fewer attendees might mean less business, some vendors were happy companies whittled down their convention teams. In past years, “companies would send their whole departments and you never knew who you were talking to,” said Michael Cosentino, national account sales manager for Cimbali USA Inc., a coffee-machine manufacturer based in Chestnut Street, Ill. to QSR Magazine. “Not this show. The big guys are here, the decision makers are here. I don’t have to wade through the minutia.”
The Association says the decrease in attendance reflects how much the industry has been hurt by the recession. But, according to Hudson Riehle, the National Restaurant Association’s senior vice president of research and information, there are signs the industry has reached “the bottom of the cycle.”
According to NRA figures, first quarter sales were down more than 6 percent and there are expectations that second quarter will come in with a loss of 1-2 percent. If the trend continues, the third quarter could see the industry breaking even and even growing by the fiscal year’s end.
“Our expectation, short of any major externalities, is, in terms of GDP, that it will turn positive once we get to October, basically the fourth quarter,” Riehle says.
Despite the attendee numbers, the show featured up-to-date and innovative equipment, technology, products and services designed to enhance productivity, streamline operations and cut back on costs.
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