Inflation is coming to a food court near you
BNN Bloomberg
Higher prices have become “a fact of life,” according to the chief executive of quick-service restaurant franchisor and operator MTY Food Group Inc.
Higher prices have become “a fact of life,” according to the chief executive of quick-service restaurant franchisor and operator MTY Food Group Inc.
Montreal-based MTY, which operates more than 70 brands ranging from ManchuWok to Jugo Juice, Cold Stone Creamery and Mucho Burrito, said Friday it has managed to reopen hundreds of its locations in recent months. MTY had 359 restaurants closed as of June 1, but only 139 remained shuttered as of Friday morning.
The lifting of pandemic-related restrictions helped MTY push system-wide third-quarter sales to more than $1 billion, representing a 13 per cent increase from the same period in 2020. However, CEO Eric Lefebvre said on a conference call Friday morning that the company is struggling to find staff.
In an interview Friday afternoon, Lefebvre said the combination of labour shortages and food price inflation driven by supply chain disruptions had forced most MTY restaurants to raise their prices.
“Definitely there is going to be inflation in the cost of people and there is going to be inflation in the cost of the food we need to buy,” Lefebvre said. “That is factored into our pricing strategies since obviously the restaurant industry works with relatively slim margins; so we need to be very cautious of how we try to absorb some costs because we can’t really absorb that much.”
“We need to cautiously look at price increases for some of our restaurants -- try and monitor what is going on in the industry and avoid pricing ourselves out, but also try and maintain our franchisees’ margins in any way we can,” he said.
