A sobering stat: the restaurant industry has been the sector with the most bankruptcies in the last three months, with 12% of U.S. bankruptcies (more than 300) coming from this industry alone.
More consolidation will happen than in any previous recession. We think 10-15% of restaurants in America will close permanently by the end of the year (with that potentially increasing to 20% if another wave of the virus hits and without further government assistance). The bulk of that will be Casual Dining, full-service restaurants and independents.
In the U.S., 4.4 million restaurant jobs have been lost (comparing 2019 with the average employment for April–June 2020), and though there are no official figures for closings, we estimate between 198,000–231,000 restaurants will close in 2020. This will be the first year the number of establishments doesn’t climb in at least 20 years (even during the 2008/2009 recession the number of restaurants continued to grow).
