Care may not be the sexy end of foodservice but for brands looking for growth they may very well want to take a closer look. I spent the 2nd of November at the Sofitel London St James for Arena’s third cost sector breakfast, ‘More than a Meal: The Future of Care and Senior Living Catering’, and left wondering how many brands are overlooking it. Read More
Lumina Intelligence’s UK Eating Out Market Report projected that UK food inflation could reach 9% to 12% by December. Eek! That lands on top of the £3.4bn in extra cost pressures UKHospitality says operators already carry.[1] So, last week’s Frozen Food Week couldn’t have been better timed.
Ask the Tesco app what to cook for dinner and if you’re among the first customers to get its new AI assistant, it won’t just suggest a recipe. It will start filling your basket too. In early October, Tesco started to roll out an AI assistant designed to help customers plan meals, following a trial with around 280,000 employees. Sainsbury’s, meanwhile, launched an AI-powered tool to help customers plan their shop, create lists and find products more easily. For the first time, the UK’s two biggest grocers have AI shopping assistants sitting between the shopper and the shelf.
Walk into ExCeL for Technology for Marketing 2026 and you could play a simple game – count the stands that didn’t mention AI. You’d be finished before you reached the coffee queue.
When the first lockdown hit in 2020, dried pasta, tinned tomatoes and blocks of Parmigiano Reggiano were among the first products to vanish from UK supermarket shelves, faster even than bread. It wasn’t panic. It was priority. Britain has been quietly obsessed with Italian food for a very long time, and in a crisis, people reach for what they trust. YouGov has named Italian cuisine the most popular in the world, with 91% of British people who have tried it saying they like it. For any Italian food brand weighing up the UK market, that’s one of the strongest tailwinds going in FMCG.
With 87% of B2B marketers now using LinkedIn, and 76% calling it the most effective channel for thought leadership¹, it’s easy to see why so many B2B brands focus their social media strategy around the platform. But while LinkedIn is an important part of any B2B strategy, relying on one platform alone could mean missing out on where your customers, chefs, operators and decision-makers are actually spending their time online. The short answer: LinkedIn is essential for B2B, but it shouldn’t be the only platform carrying your strategy.
Poutine has been around for a while now. Chips, gravy and squeaky cheese curds have been turning up on London’s late-night menus for over a decade, from the four branches of Dip & Flip to Caribou Poutine in Liverpool, the UK’s first dedicated poutine restaurant.
“It’s only good nutrition if children are eating it!”
Nine words from Arena’s Feeding the Future event that every food and drink brand selling into schools should pin above the NPD whiteboard and the Government would do well to consider. With new school food standards for England landing in September*, here’s who wins, who loses and who needs to reformulate fast.
Arena’s Summer Event took place this year at the Jumeirah Carlton Tower in Knightsbridge, a day dedicated to shaping the future of foodservice and hospitality. Arena gatherings are always a reliable barometer of industry mood, and this one delivered sharp insight, honest conversation and a wonderful lunch.
As a leading food and drink marketing agency, we make it our business to keep up with the latest trends and insight. Abi and I were delighted to attend Lumina Intelligence’s Q2 Food Strategy Forum on behalf of Team Bean earlier this month, and we came back with a clear picture of the foodservice trends that 2026 is being shaped by.
One in five UK adults is currently taking, has taken, or is actively considering a GLP-1 weight loss medication. That is a significant consumer base with significantly reduced appetites. Not great news for the food and drink industry, but as ever, any challenge can be an opportunity when armed with strong insight!
Consumer confidence has been stuck between -23 and -17 since the summer of 2024. Job security worries are growing. And yet the UK food to go market has not just held its ground. It has grown.
Something interesting is happening in design right now. After years of ever-cleaner interfaces, flatter logos and AI-generated everything, brands are reaching for rough edges. Handmade textures. Ink on paper. Typefaces that look like they were cut out of a magazine.
This week saw Lumina Intelligence host a webinar that challenged many of our assumptions about sustainability in the food and drink sector. The session revealed a significant shift in consumer attitudes around sustainability set to impact foods and drink brands in 2026.
Almost a third of people taking GLP-1 weight-loss medications have changed how they eat out. That’s not a niche trend. It’s a reset of purchase behaviour that marketing directors can’t ignore.
Since 5th January 2026, the UK food and beverage advertising market has fundamentally shifted. New restrictions on Less Healthy Food and drink (LHF) advertising are now in force, sitting alongside existing HFSS (High in Fat, Salt or Sugar) rules and long-standing protections for children. If you’re a food and beverage brand with LHF products, you’ve likely felt the headache.
I had the pleasure of attending the Arena Christmas Event with Susan, our MD, on December 1st – a brilliant way to kick off the festive season, especially as it was held at the stunning Mandarin Oriental Park Lane. Beyond the celebrations, it was an invaluable opportunity to gain key takeaways for the year ahead in our industry.
At this year’s Arena Christmas Event heavyweights from UK Hospitality, The Evolv Collection (previously D&D), Gather + Gather (contract caterers) and RedCat Independent Pubs assembled on the stage at the Mandarin Oriental for a compelling panel discussion. Given the recent budget there was a lot to discuss. Below are my key takeaways, the good, the bad and the ugly…
