New data from the NPD Group shows the changing nature of Britons’ behaviour when eating or drinking out.
The findings reveal that the UK’s love of a hot cup of tea is distinctly lukewarm, Brits now prefer burgers to fish and chips, and they are more likely to order a soft drink than something alcohol when visiting a pub.
The data also shows that casual dining brands are booming at the expense of independent “ethnic” restaurants, while chain pubs are stealing ground from independents.
Cyril Lavenant, NPD’s director of foodservice for the UK, said: “When was the last time you bought all the ingredients for a fancy meal at home, and spent hours preparing dishes for family or friends? Or how often do you pack a simple lunch for the office or even think of making a flask of tea or coffee? We all know preparing meals, snacks and drinks can be hard work so buying food and beverages outside will never lose its appeal and that’s why Britain’s out-of-home (OOH) foodservice market is big business. It could be worth £53.5 billion by the end of 2016, not so far behind the value of the UK auto industry. But food and drink bought away from home is a fast-changing business too, with new brands and concepts changing the look and feel of our town centres and our high streets, and even changing the way we enjoy our free time.”
Here are eight insights into the out-of-home (OOH) British foodservice market using figures released today by the NPD Group.
Pubs
Branded pubs have grown by 35% in terms of visits in the year to June 2016, when compared to June 2010. Independent pubs have suffered the reverse, with the number of visits falling over 27%. As of June this year, the 838 million visits to branded pubs over the previous 12 months were close to double the 429 million visits recorded for the independents. That’s not all. Pubs of all kinds are seeing servings of alcohol drop, while soft drink servings rise. Alcohol servings are down to 483 million for the year to June 2016 – that’s a fall from 614 million six year ago – while soft drinks have jumped from 577 million servings to 647 million.
Tea
Brits’ thirst for tea is lukewarm at best while our demand for coffee is robust. From June 2010 to June 2016, servings of tea in Britain’s OOH foodservice market dropped some 20% from 1.07 billion to 861 million. Coffee consumption over the same period was stable at around 2.1 billion servings, with a clear shift from traditional coffee to specialty coffees – americano, cappuccino, latte, espresso, mocha and macchiato.
Fish and chips
The decline in visits to fish and chip outlets is steady, down nearly 8% in the year to June 2016 compared to the year to June 2010. Out of 11.3 billion visits to OOH outlets last year, over 9% were to fast food burger restaurants while less than 3% were for fish and chips. Significantly, our hunger for burgers far exceeds the expansion of the quick-service restaurant (QSR) sector serving fast food. Visits to fast food outlets generally were up nearly 7% compared to 2010, but visits specifically for burgers grew by a massive 25% over the same period.
Casual dining and ‘ethnic’ restaurants
In the QSR sector, restaurants serving Chinese or Indian food, as well as kebabs, have seen visits drop by 5% between 2010 and 2016. In full-service restaurants, serving more formal Chinese, Indian, Greek, French, Mexican or Spanish food, the decrease in visits is bigger at 6%. Britain has got casual dining fever. To June 2016, casual dining outlets did £5.07 billion in sales, up nearly 35% on the year to 2010. Consumers notched up around 502 million visits to Britain’s numerous casual dining outlets in 2016; that’s 26% more (or nearly 104 million visits) than the year ending June 2010.
Meal deals and children
In the year to June 2016 (and the previous year to June 2015), 28% of OOH foodservice visits involved meal deals or promotions. Meal deals are big in the casual dining sector and were used in 40% of visits in the year to June 2016. There is also evidence that consumers’ children are an influence on where to eat. In 2016, nearly one quarter of OOH visits where at least one child was present (22.6%) were motivated by the fact that “the kids like it there”. NPD’s data show that kids “choosing” an outlet are driving some £3.8 billion of foodservice business each year.
Snack guilt
Chocolate bars are still Brits’ favourite snack, followed by crisps, but servings of each have decreased in recent years. For the year to June 2010, Britain bought 334 million servings of chocolate and 288 million servings of crisps. But by June 2016 those numbers had tumbled by 14% and 30% respectively.
Breakfasts
Some say breakfast is the most important meal of the day. It’s certainly a growing part of the foodservice industry, accounting for 11.2% of Britain’s eat-out visits – up from 9.5% six years ago.
London
London accounts for around 19% of eat-out sales nationally and nearly 16% of visits. But London foodservice prices are 17% higher than the rest of the country. The writer Samuel Johnson said “there is in London all that life can afford”. But can you afford to eat in the British capital?
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