WASHINGTON — The National Restaurant Association’s Restaurant Performance Index stood at 100.6 in June, the sixth time in the last seven months the R.P.I. was above 100, signifying industry expansion.
June’s index was up 0.8% from 99.9 May.
“The R.P.I.’s solid improvement in June was due in large part to stronger same-store sales and customer traffic performances, which bounced back from their May declines,” said Hudson Riehle, senior vice-president of the research and knowledge group for the N.R.A. “In addition, restaurant operators are optimistic that their sales environment will improve in the months ahead while their outlook for capital spending also remains strong.”
Overall, restaurant operators had stronger same-store sales in June with 51% of operators reporting a same-store sales gain between June 2010 and June 2011, which was up from 39% of operators who reported higher same-store sales in May. Additionally, 31% of operators saw same-store sales declines in June, and this was down from 40% of operators who had lower sales in May.
There was improved traffic in June with 44% of operators seeing an increase in traffic compared with the same month of the previous year, and this was up from 33% of operators who saw higher traffic in May. Only 33% of operators saw a traffic decline in June, down from 41% who reported lower traffic in May.
The expectations index, a measurement of how optimistic restaurant operators are for the six-month outlook for the industry, was at 100.7, up from 100.6 in May, and this represented the 11th consecutive month this index has been above 100.
Restaurant operators are fairly optimistic about sales growth in the coming months with 40% of operators expecting to have higher sales in six months and only 16% expecting to have lower sales volume in six months. However, operators aren’t as optimistic about the direction of the overall economy with 26% saying they expect conditions to improve in six months and 20% saying they expect conditions to worsen.