MICRO- FOOD & BEV SECTOR

• The restaurant and foodservice industry has annual sales of over $550 billion dollars and employs more than 13 million people.
• Over 57 percent of restaurant and foodservice managers are women.
• The restaurant and foodservice industry expects to continue to grow over the next decade, with 14.8 million jobs by 2019.
• The commercial segment of the restaurant and foodservice industry includes restaurants, catering and banquets, retail, stadium, and airline and cruise ships.
• The noncommercial segment of the restaurant and foodservice industry prepares and serves food in support of some other establishment’s main function or purpose.
• Contribution Margin is calculated by subtracting Variable Costs from Price of Product.
• Airline catering involves food quality, logistics, airplane galleys, and flight kitchens.
• Break-Even Point is calculated by dividing Fixed Costs by Contribution Margin.
• The menu is a list of food and beverage offerings of a food establishment.
• Average Guest Check is calculated by dividing Total Sales by Total Number of Guests.
• The menu details how a dish is prepared or cooked, the ingredients used, and the price it is sold.
• These are edible items prepared in the kitchen catering to customers' demands.
• The restaurant and foodservice industry can be divided into two major parts or segments: commercial and noncommercial.
• Travel and tourism: the combination of all of the services that people need and will pay for when they are away from home.
• Hospitality: the services that people use and receive when they are away from home.
• Tourism: travel for recreational, leisure, or business purposes, and it has become a popular global leisure activity.
• The history of hospitality and foodservice can be traced back to Ancient Greece and Rome, where the Ancient Greeks rarely dined out but would have banquets, and the Romans’ desires for exotic foods and spices increased trade.
• The Middle Ages changed from a hunting society to an agrarian society and travel was extremely dangerous, including the shipment of spices and fine goods.
• Europeans were introduced to coffee from Africa and coffeehouses or Café’s opened in England during the Renaissance through the French Revolution.
• Catherine de Medici introduced Haute cuisine, an elaborate and refined system of food preparation and the use of silverware.
• Guilds, or associations of people with similar interests or professions, were organized during the Renaissance through the French Revolution.
• Boulanger began serving hot soups called restaurers for their health-restoring properties and called his café a restorante, the origin of our modern word restaurant.
• As people immigrated to the New World, cities along the East Coast grew and as early as 1634, an inn in Boston called Cole’s offered food and lodging to travelers.
• Very few early-colonial Americans ever traveled or dined out and people who did travel, stayed at inns, which was a large room with a single bed.
• Schools and universities often use satellite, or commissary feeding, which is when one kitchen prepares food that is then shipped to other locations to be served.
• Food cost percentage is the ratio of the amount of money your restaurant spends on food and beverage ingredients (food inventory) to the revenue those ingredients generate when they're sold as menu items (food sales), expressed as a percentage of total revenue from food sales.
• Convention centers host expositions open to the public and trade shows restricted to those in industry.
• Foodservice opportunities in the military are greater than ever, with more than a million meals prepared in military kitchens each day.
• Shopping malls and plazas offer a variety of foodservice opportunities, including quick-service and casual-dining restaurants.
• Correctional facilities face the challenge of providing well-prepared food at minimal cost.
• Lodging industry, from luxury hotels with award-winning, fine-dining operations to discount chains offering breakfasts to travelers, offer foodservice opportunities.
• Restaurants, chains, franchisee/franchisor, independents/entrepreneurs, and many customers look to organizations that review establishments and post ratings to decide where to dine.
• Restaurant labor cost is one of the primary expenses in running a restaurant, along with overhead expenses, and can be calculated as a percentage of sales or total operating costs.
• Theme parks place a high importance on the quality of food and service, as food is a major part of the guests’ experience.
• Retail foodservice opportunities are found in businesses that offer home meal replacements and ready-made dishes (take out section of grocery store).
• A franchise restaurant is a restaurant concept that an independent investor can purchase from the restaurant owner, buying the right to use the restaurant's name, trademark, branding, and business model.
• Stadiums or sports arenas (corporate suites, walking vendors, cooks, and cashiers) offer foodservice opportunities.
• Gross Profit Margin = (Revenue – Cost of Goods Sold) / Revenue x 100, shows the percentage ratio of revenue you keep for each sale after all costs are deducted.
• Health-care services such as hospitals, long-term care facilities, and assisted-living facilities offer foodservice opportunities.
• Zagat Survey is a consumer-based guide that rates restaurants on four qualities: food, décor, service, and cost.