Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh -- (SBWire) -- 05/03/2012 --Summary: Product Synopsis: “Italian Foodservice: The Future of Foodservice to 2016” provides a top-level overview and detailed market, channel, and company-specific insights into the operating environment for foodservice companies. It is an essential tool for companies active across the Italian foodservice value chain, and for new companies considering entering the market.

Introduction and Landscape
Why was the report written?
This report is the result of Canadean’s extensive market and company research covering the Italian foodservice industry. It provides detailed analysis of both historic and forecast foodservice industry values at channel level, analysis of the leading companies in the industry, and Italy’s business environment and landscape. The Italian Foodservice report is a study of the industry in light of the difficult economic environment in the country and across Europe.

What is the current market landscape and what is changing?
The market remained more or less stagnant, with subdued growth, or even a decline, during the period 2008–2010. The stagnation or decline is attributable to the slowdown in the European economy, as a direct impact on the foodservice market in Italy. However, the foodservice sector experienced growth in 2011 on account of the increased consumer confidence and rise in consumption expenditure compared to 2010.

What are the key drivers behind recent market changes?
Growth in sales in the foodservice industry can be attributed to the increase in consumer income during 2006–2007; however , the advent of the economic crisis in 2008 led to a decline in the sales in the industry. Sales in the industry registered decline in the year 2009 as well as 2010. However, before the European debt crisis, consumer confidence in the country increased. Sales as well as transactions in the industry registered positive growth.

What makes this report unique and essential to read?
“Italian Foodservice: The Future of Foodservice to 2016” provides a top-level overview and detailed market, channel, and company-specific insights into the operating environment for foodservice companies. It is an essential tool for companies active across the Italian foodservice value chain, and for new companies considering entering the market.

Key Features and Benefits
This report provides readers with unparalleled levels of detail and insight into the development of the foodservice sector in Italy.

This report provides readers with in depth data on the valuation and development of both the Profit and Cost sectors in the Italian foodservice market.

This report provides details on the number of outlets, transactions, average price, foodservice sales, sales per outlet and transactions per outlet per week, across nearly 50 sub-channels.

This report provides highly granular future forecasts and historic market data to aid market and strategic planning.

This report will help you to assess the impact of the economic recession and recovery on foodservice market growth.

Key Market Issues
Growth in the Italian economy has been subdued due to the global economic slowdown and the debt crisis in Europe. The impact of the economic downturn has been felt on foodservice sales in the country, which experienced negative growth in GDP at constant prices in 2008 and 2009.

The inflation at consumer prices has been low in the country from 2006 onwards, not exceeding 3.5%, but the rate is expected to decline in the forecast period. Inflation is expected to hover around 1.8% to 2% during the forecast period. Unemployment is expected to decline from 8.2% in 2011 to 7.8% during 2016. The decline in inflation and unemployment are expected to have a positive impact on consumer confidence and out of home food expenditure in the country.

Demographic changes in the country are expected to increase the demand for nutritious and healthy food. The country has been experiencing a decline in the population aged below 64 years in the review period, and this trend is expected to continue in the forecast period.

The number of households in the country has been on the rise since 2006 and is expected to increase further in the forecast period. The increase in single person households has been one of the main drivers in increasing the total number of households in the country.The participation of women in the labor force has also been constantly increasing. Both these trends tend to increase the consumption of out of home cooked food in the country.

Over the years, the rapid globalization of the economy and the popularity of fast food alongside the increase in the female labor force, resulting in reduced leisure time for in-home food consumption, have added to the rise in the obese population in the country. However, people are increasingly taking up healthy food habits. In the recent past, healthy food has been regaining traction in the economy, which has experienced a rise in the demand for functional food.

Key Highlights
The majority of the Italians still prefer choosing Italian restaurants over other ethnic cuisine restaurants when eating away from home. However,other ethnic cuisines such as Indian and Chinese are fast catching up. In recent years the country has been becoming more open to various foreign and takeaway food outlets.

The number of coffee bars and coffee shops in Italy exceed any other country in the world, but major coffee chains, such as Starbucks, are still not present in the country. Many Italians take pride in their coffee and therefore are very particular about the taste and quality of coffee.

The growth in the number of hotels in the country has added to the foodservice industry’s revenue in the country.The resulting growth in the number of hotels in the country and overall accommodation industry has added to the growth of the foodservice industry in the country.

The evolution of foodservice consumption has led to an increase in food consumption in nightclubs in Italy. This is primarily because a significant portion of Italians have started to dine out in nightclubs.

Restaurant and other foodservice operators, especially fast foodservice providers such as McDonald’s, have extended their presence to social networking websites,such as Facebook, to engage more consumers."

For further information visit http://www.reportreserve.com/report/italian-foodservice-the-future-of-foodservice-to-2016-report-536766