Food on the Go Conference 2016 – Top Ten Take-outs
With a jam-packed agenda for the day itâs quite a challenge to cram all the key take-outs from M&C Allegraâs Food on the Go conference into one blog, but as the leading foodservice agency weâll do our best!
1)Â Â Â Â Â Currently the on the go market is possibly the most innovative, dynamic and competitive sector of the out of home market. Growing an impressive 5.4%, itâs outstripping the rest of the market by some way, as food bought to eat off premise (the definition of on the go) accounts for 1 in 4 of every pound spent out of home! With lunch hours now around 27 minutes (dropping from 36 minutes in 2000) the pressure is on for operators to deliver great food, fast!
2)Â Â Â Â Â Highly fragmented, the top ten players account for only 33% of the market with large retailers dominating at the top due to their proliferation of sites. C-stores are gaining share but suffer from a lack of innovation and often limited offer due to the independent family run nature of the business.
3)Â Â Â Â Â Street food is still on the increase and millennials are driving the market with their demand for high quality, good value food on the go. As for the recipe for success? Well, according to M&C Allegra itâs simple â fresher, faster & hotter!
4)Â Â Â Â Â What does the on the go consumer look like (versus the general outing out consumer)? Research findings from M&C Allegra indicates the following: 53% Male (vs. 49% of total Eating Out participants), 66% Under 50 (vs. 51%), 17% London (vs. 13%), 67% Full-time workers (vs. 56%), 36% Earn ÂŁ40k+ (vs. 31%). What consumers want when it comes to food on the go is pretty simple – fast service, close to work, product freshness and healthier options. Queuing, unsurprisingly, is the biggest frustration, joined by lack of choice and over pricing. Whilst promotions definitely drive sales with 65% of consumers using promotions and 1 in 6 consumers stating they would choose to go elsewhere if a promotion was removed. As for what people are buying on the go, sandwiches and cola are key purchases, as is bottled water, but the popularity of sandwiches is in decline as the rise of other bread carriers and salad options increases.
5)Â Â Â Â Â The rising trends in on the go food include: Pan-Asian, gluten-free, vegetarian, healthier, hot product, Americana, premiumisation and hotter sauces. Â And if youâre looking to be inspired by some new and different food to go concepts itâs worth visiting: Wolf Street Italian, The Bowler, Hai Street Kitchen, HOP (exciting Vietnamese concept), Ć°GOT (too cool for school, clean eating concept set up by an unfeasibly precocious (in a good way!)Â gluten avoider instead of a frozen yogurt bar), Friska (with a real vision to ârefine expectations within our industry from the inside outâ), Coco di Mama (owned by Azzuri who also own ZiZi and Ask), Crussh Juice Bars (so much more than just food!), Hackney Eat 17 (a Spar convenience store!) and Vital Ingredient (defining healthy on the go).
6)Â Â Â Â Â Transport hubs are of course a key focus of food on the go and Tom Dobson from Network Rail is responsible for the 18 largest stations in the UK and their F&B offering. In 2020 he predicts 1 billion people will visit these stations and this will generate 1 billion in F&B revenue â impressive stuff. In 2015 alone they experienced 900 million visits to these top 18 stations, an increase of 7%, with like for like sales growing at 6% last year, so food to go concepts looking for a sure bet could do worse than consider key stations for their next opening it would seem.
7)     McDonaldâs is the goliath in the food to go market and also boasts some impressive statsâŠ.90% of people visit McDonaldâs, they have seen 39 consecutive quarters of sales growth, from their research with 5,000 consumers they know that 17-24 year olds want more spice on the menu and donât feel that McDonaldâs is contemporary enough. This is something the company is addressing with its roll-out of new concept stores, which include: a signature range of more thicker, more premium burgers, customisation, a new look including a new style uniform and convenient touch screen ordering points. Keep an eye out for these new and improved stores coming soon! The bad news, unlike the US they wonât be doing all day breakfast (sad times).
8)Â Â Â Â Â The challenges and opportunities common to operators big and small consist of â the crazy London property market with exorbitant rents and unreasonable contracts, minimising queue times, getting and keeping good people, competition, standing out in the market, creating an emotional engagement to their brand which keeps customers loyal and delivering consistently high quality food to a highly discerning and increasingly impatient customer base. Whilst opportunities include: focusing on what they do well rather than becoming a jack of all trades, the use of technology around payment and pre-ordering both in store and pre-store visit, social media engagement and use as a real time customer relations and service tool, expansion into other locations and even countries, partnering up with other operators (e.g. Starbucks and Pod / Costa and Chopâd), understanding consumer behaviour around food on the go, the rise of Pan Asian, Middle Eastern and free from.
9)Â Â Â Â Â In at nine and more of an observation than a take-out, it would seem that the majority of food on the go start-ups are run by ex-bankers who obsess about their lunch for years from the confines of the city before taking the plunge and leaving the trading floors, boardrooms and city bonuses behind to make lunchtimes more enjoyable for the rest of us!
10)Â Â Finally and possibly the key take-out for the day â if you stack two keep cups from Friska they are the same height as a groundhog! Good to know.
Thankfully having been to the 2015 Food on the Go conference, I can say without a doubt that this yearâs was far from a groundhog day (see what I did there!) as it brought together all players in the food to go market from the big boys like McDonaldâs, Starbucks, Leon, Wild Bean CafĂ© and Pret to new innovative start-ups like Friska, Hop and Ć°GOT offering up the latest market data and insights to keep everything aptly fresh. Well done to the team at M&C Allegra on another great event. To find out more about M&C Allegra visit http://www.mcallegra-fs.com/
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Hotelympia will soon be upon us, and as the great and the good of the industry gather at Excel to see whatâs hot for 2016 itâs also a great excuse for a party – or should I say âgala dinnerâ. And what better cause than industry charity Springboard, whoâs excellent work helps young and under-privileged people into careers in hospitality, leisure and tourism across the UK. Of course, as the leading foodservice agency we will be there, at the St Davidâs Day themed, âBig Eventâ on the 1st March, joined by some of our clients who are exhibiting at Hotelympia.
When it comes to awards our industry does pretty well, and as the leading foodservice pr agency we tend to get along to most, if not all of them. But as they say thereâs always room for one more and to that end the latest addition to the foodservice awards calendar kicked-off last night at the Hurlingham Club with the inaugural Catering Insight Awards. Brought to us by Catering Insight Magazine, the awards set out to recognise the very best in the catering equipment sector, covering manufacturers, distributors and dealers. With categories voted by over 100 judges (manufacturers for dealers and dealers for manufacturers) the categories covered everything from the national regions to sustainability and light and heavy equipment â to name but a few.
The Arena Christmas Event is the official start to the Christmas festivities for the foodservice industry and as the leading foodservice agency we make a point of attending every year. This year there was a double bill, featuring a review of the year from Horizons and a key note speech from Wendy Bartlett of Bartlett Mitchell, not to mention a fabulous meal at the Mandarin Oriental. The day kicked-off with coffee and complimentary porridge, courtesy of our client Ferrero, whoâs nutella hazelnut spread added a much needed sweet addition to the hand-held porridge pots, and was especially appreciated by those attendees who had an early start to make it into Knightsbridge for the Horizons briefing.
From event catering to healthcare, CSR to marketing, the FSM Awards (Foodservice Management Awards) aim to celebrate the best and the brightest in the field of contract catering. This year the glittering awards night, was held at the Lancaster London and hosted by Mark Durden-Smith (a foodservice favourite it would seem). The awards were dispersed between courses, prepared by leading contract caterers Elior, Sodexo, CH&Co and of course our hosts for the night, The Lancaster London – all of which were equally delicious.
Well, after many years of Mexican being heralded as the next big thing in the UK foodservice market it would seem its time has finally come. Having been in foodservice marketing for fourteen years I can recall many a debate at the NRA show with my British counterparts on the issue of âwill the UK follow the US when it comes to Mexican cuisine?â. The stock answer was very much a âprobably not, just look at the demographic of the US population, of course Mexican food is popular, the UK is very different, I canât seeing it taking off over here.â Oh how they must be eating their words now, as in 2015 our appetite for Mexican eclipses all other cuisines it would seem. In fact Mexican food has overtaken Indian in the ready meal wars with spend up 12.8% to ÂŁ264million in one year*. Mexican cuisine is now an established out of home flavour trend observed by the likes of Horizons, Technomic and Allegra, with restaurants including Wahaca, Chipotle, Tortilla and Las Iguanas dominating our high streets.
There are few things that will motivate me to head into The City of London on a hot and sticky Wednesday evening, but luckily for 
The Cateys has always been the hot ticket when it comes to the hospitality world. So as the leading foodservice agency we were there in force to find out first-hand who would be walking away with one of the iconic and highly coveted Cateys âlady & shellâ statues. Now in its 32nd year, the Cateys celebrate the cream of the crop when it comes to the hospitality industry. With twenty one categories covering all facets of the industry the awards night itself is the culmination of months of judging and preparation.
As the leading foodservice agency we can always be found at Arena events and the Arena Summer Event last Friday was no exception. Held at the Jumeirah Carlton Tower the day offered not one but two attractions on the bill, with Technomic running us through their observations and predictions for the UK casual dining market, followed by words of wisdom from Andrew Guy, CEO of Edâs Easy Diner (a good pairing). As ever with Arena events itâs not just about the speakers, itâs also very much about the networking and we were lucky enough to catch-up with old contacts and meet some interesting new ones.
As the leading foodservice agency we make a point of attending the âMarketing in Foodserviceâ conference, which is now in its third year. M&C Allegra offered up a varied agenda for the day with speakers representing high street operator brands, traditional and social media channels and of course food brands, reflecting the diverse nature of the sector.