Major packaged food and beverage companies and restaurant chains alike are shifting more of their capital expenditures overseas, in line with their increasing emphasis on realizing growth through developing markets, confirms a new U.S. corporate capital expenditures report from Fitch Ratings.
Gross capital expenditures for combined food, beverage, restaurant and tobacco companies declined 5.6% between 2008 and 2009 (data excludes Kraft Foods' recent Cadbury acquisition), to $20.2 billion.
The decline primarily reflected the restaurant sector's pull-back on new-unit expansion during the recession. Restaurants overall, and particularly casual dining and highly leveraged chains, reduced capital spending as they encountered downward pressure on same-store sales, according to Fitch.
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