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“Our last ‘Menurama’ survey [Summer 2013],
which analyses menu trends in restaurants,
pubs, hotels and quick service sectors, showed
that typically only 12% of main course dishes
on menus are vegetarian, with only 2% being
gluten-free.
“We will track this trend in forthcoming
surveys, but we have to ask whether eating
out establishments are currently doing
enough to cater for these lifestyle
concerns, particularly the apparent
demand for vegetarian dishes and
‘free-from’ dishes. Our survey
indicates that these issues are
likely to become more important,
rather than less, as the eating out
market improves,” added Knight.
The survey confirms that Britain’s
eating out market is stabilising in terms
of frequency of eating out, with the
percentage of people eating out on the
increase, and currently at the same level
as it was in 2010.
Over two-thirds (69%) of respondents had
eaten out in the previous two weeks with
those that had eaten out doing so an average
of 1.8 times. The number of people eating
out has risen from 68% to 69% year-on-year.
“This is good news for the UK’s foodservic e
sector,” comments Knight. “We should now
start to see an increase in the frequency with
which consumers are eating out as the economy
picks up, along with a gradual increase in
average spend. Real growth will be slow, but is
likely to be steady over the next 18 months.”
When it comes to people’s choice of
venue the survey showed that pub
restaurants continue to be the type
of establishment visited by most
respondents, with 22% of those who
had eaten out in the previous two weeks
eating in a pub restaurant most recently,
an increase of 2% year-on-year, up
4% since July 2013.
While the use of takeaways and delivery
outlets remains relatively static, pizza
and pasta outlets have fallen back
slightly year-on-year (9% vs 10%) as have
eat-in fast food outlets (5% vs 8%). Cafés
(including coffee shops) have grown in
popularity as eating out destinations,
with 6% of respondents eating out in
a café or coffee shop, compared
with 4% in December 2012.
Average spend across all
outlets (including drinks)
now stands at £14.41, up
from £13.30 in July, but less
than last year’s average
spend of £14.55.
“Consumers are still being very
careful about how often they eat out,
although spend remains relatively high.
Unusually there has been a slight year-
on-year decrease in average spend,
which perhaps reflects how cautious
consumers are,” said Knight.
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