PH Restaurants LP, a subsidiary of Vancouver-based Aquilini Investment Group’s Toptable Group, will open its 48th Pizza Hut franchise this May in Burnaby.
The reason: B.C.’s booming restaurant scene.
“B.C. is doing much better in the food service sector than the rest of the country and that’s largely because of tourism,” said PH president Mike Cyr.
Indeed, data from Statistics Canada and Central 1 Credit Union shows that B.C. restaurants had a 10 per cent sales increase in the first 11 months of 2016. That compares with 6.3 per cent sales growth at restaurants countrywide during that same time period. The province with the most sluggish gains was Alberta, at 0.3 per cent sales growth.
B.C.’s full-service restaurants are the best-performing food service niche, with an 11.5 per cent sales gain in the first 11 months of 2016, compared with the same period in 2015. Fast-food sales were up 10 per cent across the province during that same time period.
