South Africa’s bars and restaurants are filling up, reports Stats SA

Happy hour is back at SA bars.

• There was a 55.8% increase in income generated by the food and beverages industry in July.
• The largest annual growth rates were recorded for income from overall bar sales, which was up 81.6% to R380.3 million.
• There was a 54.2% rise to R5.23 billion in overall food sales.
• Food and beverages income is still down on pre-Covid-19 sales.
• For more stories, go to www.BusinessInsider.co.za.

South Africa’s bars and restaurants are filling up.

This is according to Stats SA’s food and beverages survey for July 2022, which found that total income generated by the food and beverages industry increased 55.8% when compared with July 2021.

When broken into income types, the largest annual growth rate was for overall bar sales, which was up 81.6% to R380.3 million. There was also an impressive 54.2% rise to R5.23 billion in overall food sales.

The main contributor to the 55.8% year-on-year increase, when looking at specific food and beverages services, were restaurants and coffee shops, which rose 82.6% and contributed 3 percentage points to the overall growth.

There was also an increase in takeaway and fast-food outlets’ income, which was up 32% for the period. While catering services saw a 52.3% increase to R817 million.

Though the growth for the period is impressive, it does not tell the whole story.

The R5.74 billion in income generated overall during the period is still down 9.2% from the R6.32 billion it made in July 2019, a year before the Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns shut the industry down.

Source: Stats SA

Takeaway and fast-food outlets have more than recovered from the pandemic, as they generated R1.9 billion in income in July 2019, which has since increased to R2.42 billion in July 2022, when measured at current prices.