Press Release:

(Leesburg, VA) – On-premise trends during the 4 weeks ending 11/03/13 had its best performance since August. Key will be to see if it’s a sustained trend, or is just a temporary bump after the gov’t shutdown.

· Our data indicates trends for full service restaurants and bars showed some signs of improvement during the 4 weeks ending November 3rd. Overall traffic to full service restaurants and bars was -1.9% in 3Q13 vs. prior year, but improved to -1.3% during the most recent four weeks. While certainly not a picture of resounding strength, this is the best y/y figure for overall traffic since August.

· Traffic to bars/clubs was -4.2% in 3Q13 and deteriorated even further to -4.6% during the most recent 4 weeks (though it should be noted this is better than the concerning -6.0% seen during the 4 weeks ending 10/6/13). Casual dining traffic was -2.0% during 3Q but then improved to -1.2% during the 4 weeks through early November. Lastly, traffic to fine dining was -0.7% during 3Q and remained generally consistent with that level at -0.6% during the most recent four weeks. So while bars/clubs weakened relative to 3Q and fine dining showed only a minimal improvement, the improvement in overall on-premise traffic trends was driven almost exclusively by casual dining (which represents nearly 70% of overall on-premise).

· On-premise alcohol volumes were -3.7% during 3Q13 but improved to -2.9% during the most recent 4 weeks. In terms of the specific alcohol categories, beer volumes were -4.8% in 3Q13 but improved slightly to -4.0% during the most recent 4 weeks. Spirits volumes were -3.1% in 3Q13 but improved to -2.4% during the most recent 4 weeks. And lastly, wine volumes were -1.3% during 3Q13 but improved to -0.4% during the most recent 4 weeks, so after starting the year off on a strong note but then weakening over the past few months, wine volumes almost broke back into positive y/y territory.

· Given 3Q showed the weakest trends of the year in on-premise, the slight improvement seen during the most recent 4 weeks is certainly a positive. However, key will be to see whether this is the beginning of a more sustained improvement in the coming months, or whether the improvement is just a temporary uptick from pent-up demand from the government shutdown. GuestMetric’s sister company, Consumer Edge Research, published its interim CEI index last week which showed that there wasn’t much of a bounce in consumer confidence thus far in November despite an end to the government shutdown.

About GuestMetrics LLC
GuestMetrics, LLC is revolutionizing how the hospitality industry operates. Despite the dawn of the Digital Age having begun more than three decades ago, the hospitality industry essentially functions the same way it did centuries before. GuestMetrics has cracked the code by collecting check-level data from over ten thousand restaurants closely representative of the broad on-premise sector across geographies, and with respect to the make-up of casual dining, bars/clubs, fine dining, and lodging. GuestMetrics turns billions of raw transactions into intelligible information that is fundamentally transforming the business operations of everyone from the independently-owned bar/restaurant on the corner, to multi-national chains, to the food & beverage companies that supply them. Please visit www.GuestMetrics.com for more information and to schedule a free demonstration.