Hospitality Today Oct-Nov 2016 | Page 19

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 .