Chart of the Day: F&B service sales faced with flattish growth in 2018

It sealed a growth of around 2.5% YoY in September.

This chart from RHB with data from SingStat shows that the growth in sales for the F&B service sector remained flattish YTD as sales growth only hit around 2.5% in September YoY.

In January, F&B sales contracted by around 11% YoY and bounced back to a growth of more than 5% YoY by February. In the preceding months thereafter, the growth of F&B sales lingered around less than 5% to a contraction of around -1%.

“Despite its defensive nature, we think the outlook for the consumer foodservice sector is challenging,” RHB commented. “With more retail malls wooing consumer foodservice tenants, we believe this sector will see the number of F&B establishments in Singapore growing faster than the Singapore F&B services index.”