Pizza takes the top UK menu spot
Consumer spending growth slows
hospitalitytoday. com | 23
Pizza takes the top UK menu spot
Pizza is now the number one dish on UK menus, according to Horizons latest Menu Trends Report, knocking the beefburger off its long held top spot. The growth has been driven by the pub sector where the frequency of pizzas on menus has increased from 38 % to 50 %.
Whilst beef and chicken burgers are still firm favourites both have experienced a marked decrease year on year. Vegetarian burgers have bucked this trend with an increase of 13 % versus last year.
Consumer spending growth slows
Visa’ s Consumer Spending Index for January shows consumer spending growth slowed to a five month low in January.
Kevin Jenkins, UK & Ireland MD at Visa commented:“ Following a bumper Christmas season, there were signs that consumers were starting to reign in their spending at the start of the New Year. Annual growth slowed down from 2.5 % in December to a five-month low of 0.4 % in January.
“ Face-to-face wasn’ t all doom and gloom in January though, and winners on the high street did emerge. Brits continued the trend of spending on experiences rather than goods, with a near 6 % spending boost in the Hotels, Restaurants and Bars sector and a 3.1 % lift in recreation and culture spend.”
Josh Beer, The Illustrious Pub Company, Cambridgeshire, said:“ As expected, January was a quieter month for us with turnover down 5 % compared to last year. While our catering orders remained steady, customers who came to dine and drink at our pubs were spending more cautiously. The cold weather and icy driving conditions might have kept quite a few of our regulars at home too, and our figures support this, as our locations with easier pedestrian access were the best performers.”
Quan Nguyen, Chi Café, London, said:“ January was a rather quiet month for us, with sales slowing down from December. We had fewer customers through the door, and on average people seemed to spend less too. We thought this might be due to people cutting back on spending following an indulgent December, but there might be other factors at play. At the same time, we began to feel the squeeze as our main suppliers had all increased their prices.”