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Food Business Growth: Who Keeps the Value?
Restaurant sales claims and a frozen breadsticks forecast show why higher food spending does not establish stronger operator profits. For restaurant operators, more sales matter partly because of what remains after serving them. Three food-business figures illustrate the measurement problem. Akhbar El Yom reports Foodics executive Bilal Zahran’s claim that ordering platforms generate approximately 35% of regional restaurant revenue, with geography and period unspecified. It also cites Mordor Intelligence’s US$11.83 billion Egyptian restaurant market estimate without a reference year. Separately, a company-submitted ZDNET Japan release forecasts a US$2.38 billion global frozen stuffed breadsticks market by 2030, without disclosing its methodology. Revenue share, national market spending and a global product forecast answer different questions. The first describes where restaurant revenue reportedly originates; it does not reveal the profitability of those orders. The second estimates the scale of an industry, without establishing whether individual businesses are improving. The third projects future category spending. None supplies a common measure of purchases, operating costs or retained profit. Food business growth becomes meaningful only after identifying whose activity is growing and what the number actually counts. Zahran’s proposed response, as reported by Akhbar El Yom, is to balance delivery platforms with direct channels and integrate payments, orders, inventory and other operational data. The possible economic mechanism is straightforward: connected records could…