STATISTICS AND TRENDS

1. World Trends
2. Canadian Statistics
    a. Dining Trends
    b. Internet Usage Trends
    c. Internet E-Commerce Trends
3. US Statistics
    a. Dining Trends
    b. Internet Usage Trends
    c. Internet E-Commerce Trends

WORLD INTERNET TRENDS

Worldwide Internet Population: 445.9 million in 2001 and projected to reach 709.1 million by 2004(1).

According to IDC worldwide e-commerce spending grew 68% between 2000 and 2001, reaching more than $600 billion in 2001. IDC also expects e-commerce spending to pass the $1 trillion mark in 2002 (2).

Sources:
(1) eMarketer
(2) International Data Corp.

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CANADIAN STATISTICS

Canadian Dining Trends

There are more than 64,000 restaurants, caterers, pubs, bars and nightclubs in Canada (2).

According to Statistics Canada, the average household spent $1,536 on food and alcohol from restaurants in 2000. That's about 2.7% of total income and about 22% of the household food dollar.

Foodservice is one of the largest and most dynamic industries in Canada having annual sales of more than $41 billion and representing 4% of Canada's gross domestic product (1).

Canadian Foodservice operator's generated average sales per unit of $576,600 in 2001 -- a 4.1% real increase over 2000(1).

Full-service restaurants were the fastest-growing sector in 2001 in terms of total sales, but an increase in the number of units and 3.7% menu inflation eroded overall sales growth. The average operator increased sales by 2.6% in real terms in 2001. Full-service restaurants have the highest average sales per unit, however, at $666,300(1).

Limited-service restaurants led the industry with a 6.8% real increase in average sales per unit in 2001. Although total sales in the limited-service sector advanced by just 4.4%, a decline in units and low menu inflation resulted in robust growth at the unit level as consumers traded-down from higher-priced establishments (1).

Tourist food purchases account for nearly 22% of total sales in Canada, or $6.1 billion/year (2).

2002 Foodservice Sales Forecast
(millions of dollars)

Note: All growth rates are annual, unadjusted for inflation
Source: CRFA's InfoStats, Statistics Canada, Geoff Wilson & Associates Inc.
and Pannell Kerr Foster

Sources:
(1) CRFA website, March 2002
(2) Statistics Canada, Dec 2001

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CANADIAN INTERNET USAGE TRENDS

Canadians are the second most active web-surfers in the world, with 56% of the population going online(1)

Canadian Internet users toped 12.5 million in 2001(1)

More than half of all Canadian households have at least one occupant who is a regular Internet user in 2001, up from 42% last in 2000(2).

28% of Canadian households have a member who has work Internet access while 20% have an occupant with school access(2).

78% of Canadian households have dial-up access, up 29% against the previous year, while high-speed access is up 155%(2).

Current Canadian Web Usage

Average Web Usage (Feb 2002) - Canada

The reported Internet usage estimates are based on a sample of households that
have access to the Internet and use the following platforms: Windows 95/98/NT,
and MacOS 8 or higher.
The Nielsen//NetRatings Internet universe is defined as all members (2 years of
age or older) of English-speaking Canadian households which currently have
access to the Internet.

For more info on the current Canadian Web Usage go to: http://reports.netratings.com/ca/web/NRpublicreports.usagemonthly

Sources:
(1) Angus Reid Group
(2) Statistics Canada, Dec 2001

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CANADIAN INTERNET E-COMMERCE TRENDS

Canadian E-commerce revenues for 2001 were $28 billion or a 7% share of global e-commerce revenues. The forecasted annual growth through 2005 is 64% for online business purchases and 57% for online consumer purchases (1).

Canadians more than doubled their purchases of goods and services online from home in 2000, according to the second annual snapshot of household electronic commerce activity from the Household Internet Use Survey (2).

Of every $7 of e-commerce spending on goods and services in 2000, $4 was purchased directly from Canadian sites (2).

In all, 2.6 million households used the Internet to support purchasing decisions either by window shopping or placing an order on-line (2).

About 12.3% of the nation's estimated 11.8 million households placed an order over the Internet at home from January to December 2000, becoming e-commerce households (2).

An additional 9.6% of households, or about 1.1 million, were window-shoppers. That is, they used the Internet to narrow their purchasing decisions, but did not commit to ordering or purchasing on-line (2).

Households that bought products or services online in 2000 placed an average of 6.2 orders, up from 4.1 orders in 1999. The average value of each order remained was unchanged at $121 (2).

The strong advance in orders placed over the Internet occurred as the proportion of households regularly using it from home increased from 29% of all households in 1999 to 40% in 2000 (2).

Sources:
(1) Forrester Research
(2) Statistics Canada

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US STATISTICS

US Dining Trends

Increasingly Americans are cooking fewer meals at home. This has become a growing trend since many households have two working adults and very little time to prepare meals from home. Dining out has become very convenient for two income households (2).

The typical person (age 8 and older) consumes an average of 4.2 meals prepared away from home per week, or 218 meals per year (1).

More than 54 billion meals will be eaten in restaurants and school and work cafeterias in 2002(1).

Restaurant-industry sales are forecast to advance 3.9 % in 2002 and equal 4% of the U.S. gross domestic product (1)

On a typical day in 2002, the restaurant industry should post average sales of more than $1.1 billion (1).

Per-person checks averaged $5.69 in 2001(2).

In 2010, the restaurant industry will operate more than 1 million units, with sales of $577 billion capturing 53% of the food dollar (1).

Roughly, half of tableservice-restaurant operators have a Website (2).

Three out of five tableservice-restaurant operators report having access to the Internet at the unit level (2).

Fullservice Operators' Outlook for Business in 2002
By Average Check Size

Source: National Restaurant Association 2001 Tableservice Operator Survey.

Sources:
(1) National Restaurant Association
(2) U.S. Business Reporter

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US INTERNET USAGE TRENDS

More than half of Americans are now online. In September 2001, 143 million Americans (about 54% of the population) were using the Internet - an increase of 26 million in 13 months (1).

The rate of growth of Internet use in the United States is currently two million new Internet users per month (1).

Approximately 33% of Americans use the Internet to search for product and service information (36%, up from 26% in 2000) (1).

Among Internet users, 39% of individuals are making online purchases (1).

45% of Americans now uses e-mail, up from 35% in 2000.

Family households with children under the age of 18 are more likely to access the Internet (62%) than family households with no children (53%), and non-family households (35%) (1).

Over the 1998 to 2001 period, growth in Internet use among people living in rural households has been at an average annual rate of 24%, and the percentage of Internet users in rural areas (53%) is now almost even with the national average (54%) (1).

While 80% of Americans access the Internet through dial-up service, residential use of broadband service is rapidly expanding (1).

Between August 2000 and September 2001, residential use of high-speed, broadband service doubled-from about 5% to 11% of all individuals, and from 11% to 20% of Internet users (1).

Current US Web Usage

Average Web Usage (Feb 2002) - USA

Source: Nielsen//NetRatings Audience Measurement Service. The reported
Internet usage estimates are based on a sample of households that have
access to the Internet and use the following platforms: Windows 95/98/NT,
and MacOS 8 or higher.
The Nielsen//NetRatings Internet universe is defined as all members (2 years
of age or older) of U.S. households which currently have access to the Internet.

For more info on the current US Web Usage go to:
http://pm.netratings.com/nnpm/owa/NRpublicreports.usagemonthly

Sources:
(1) US Department of Commerce (Feb 2002)
(2) National Restaurant Association

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US INTERNET E-COMMERCE TRENDS

According to the study "How America Shops 2002, The Overstuffed Consumer," by WSL Strategic Retail, 24% of shoppers surveyed used the Internet for shopping in 2001, up from 10% in 2000 and 5% in 1998 (1).

Total e-commerce sales for 2001 were estimated at $32.6 billion, an increase of 19.3% from 2000. Total retail sales in 2001 increased 3.3% from 2000. For the year, e-commerce sales in 2001 accounted for 1.0% of total sales (2).

WSL's report found that an almost equal percentage of consumers in the 18-to-34 age group (29%) shop online as in the 35-to-54 age group (27%). Higher-income shoppers are still more likely to use the Internet as a retail channel (41% with incomes over $70,000/year) than those with lower incomes (26% making $70,000 or less). Not surprisingly, convenience, which has long been cited as the biggest driver of e-commerce, continues to drive shoppers online. Almost 60% of respondents said convenience was why they chose the Internet as a retail channel. Less than one-quarter (23%) cited price (1).

Sources:
(1) WSL Strategic Retail
(2) National Restaurant Association