Cyril Lavenant, NPD’ s Director of Foodservice UK, said:“ Foodservice operators providing lunches of all kinds are working in an intensively competitive marketplace. The well-known brands are succeeding at the expense of independent operators. But the bigger story is that it’ s easier than ever before to buy a good breakfast on the high street. In addition, some 16 % of breakfast occasions away from home occur at the relatively late time of between 10am and 11am, meaning that lunch for some might then become just a quick bite of something light that people bring from home. In that case, they would skip buying their lunch from outside. So as breakfast away from home grows, especially if this happens later in the morning, there is a danger breakfast will cannibalise lunch business. That’ s a trend foodservice operators should watch.”
Lunch is popular at weekends
Lunch has declined during the week in visit terms but is seeing strong growth at weekends, with 8 % more visits than eight years ago. Breakfast though is doing even hospitalitytoday. com | 19
better with over 20 % more weekend visits. Meanwhile, lunch is increasingly relying on deals with a five percentage point increase in lunching out visits involving promotions and meal deals( from 23 % of all OOH lunch visits YE June 2008 to 28 % for YE June 2016).
Are we eating lunch where we buy it? For YE June 16 vs YE June 08, on-premise visits were up 5.8 %, while off-premise(‘ lunch on the go’) visits were down 6.3 %. However, lunch on-the-go visits have recently picked up, increasing in the past year to June 2016 by 3.9 % versus a slower growth of 1.7 % for on-premise visits.
Meanwhile, our tastes for lunch purchased away from home are showing no evidence of change. Sandwiches or wraps are our food of choice, with one-third( 33 %) of all lunch visits including these items, much higher than burgers( 15.9 %) or chips / French fries( 14 %). Over 25 % of visits involve the purchase of a carbonated soft drink. More than twice as many OOH lunch visits( 15 % vs 7 %) involve coffee rather than tea.