IGD Eating Out Report – Top Take Outs
Last week saw the IGD run their latest webinar on Eating Out: a world of challenges and opportunities. As ever, their insights presented by Rhian Thomas and Nicola Knight were well considered and highly relevant to us, a leading out of home agency, as we are always keen to stay ahead of market trends and consumer behaviour. The report was very comprehensive and certainly worth a read. But for those in a hurry, here are some key take outs:

Food-to-go, delivery & restaurant trends for 2022 and beyond
As a leading food and drink agency, we are always keen to keep up and deliver the latest foodservice trends & insights that play a key part in planning and strategizing for our clients in hospitality. Lumina’s latest Food Strategy Forum looked at food-to-go, delivery and the restaurant market with current statistics and predictions until 2025 extracted from their latest reports.

10 Key Takeaways from the MCA Food-to-Go Conference
Lumina Intelligence estimate the food-to-go sector will reach £23bn by 2025.
More than 200 people attended the MCA Food-to-Go conference in London on March 9th, where Lumina Intelligence spoke, and delegates heard presentations from a range of food-to-go operators including Café Nero, Greggs, itsu, Leon, Pret and Pure.

Russia and Ukraine: How will tensions impact food commodities?
Between inflation, supply chain issues and energy prices, it seems price rises are never-ending. And sadly, the brewing conflict between Russia and Ukraine is signalling yet more price increases for their primary exports: wheat, gas, and fertiliser.

The Caterer Plant-Based Summit
With Veganuary ending and reports that ten times as many people tried plant-based food last month (I was one of them), The Caterer’s Plant-Based Summit 2022 provided an insightful look at the vegan market, as well as fascinating discussions on the challenges and opportunities for operators, manufacturers and chefs.

Eating Out & Pub Market Trends
The Latest from Lumina Intelligence’s Food Strategy Forum
As a leading food and drink agency we make it our business to keep up to date with the latest eating out market trends. Each of the Lumina briefings is hotly awaited to see what they have to share with us as we use these key market insights to inform our planning and strategy for clients in foodservice and the hospitality market. This session looked at the current status of the market and predictions up until 2024 with a focus on the pub and bar sector pulling on findings from their latest report.

The National Food Strategy
Henry Dimbleby, co-founder of the Leon restaurant chain and chair of the National Food Strategy, was commissioned by government to execute an independent review on how to achieve a sustainable and fair food system. The terrible health crisis that took over the world in 2020 has shown with alarming clarity the damage being done to our health by the modern food system. Diet related illness is one of the top three risk factors for dying of Covid-19 and has cemented the need for the UK government and businesses to take bold action and revamp its National Food Strategy Plan.

The Rocky Road to Recovery
“I’ve got good news and bad news…which would you like first?”
We all know it takes a special kind of psychopath to ask for the bad news ahead of the good, but today’s Arena ‘From Re-Opening Roadmap to Recovery’ webinar really was a tale of two acts, top-loaded with bad, but tinged with some thumbs-to-the-troposphere optimism, arriving a little while after the interval.

Hospitality Recovery
It’s been a long road, but despite the threat of a third wave, the roll out of vaccinations does mean there is light at the end of the tunnel for the hospitality sector, which has been devastated by the past 16 months. 2020 saw 11 weeks of normal trading and 41 weeks of restrictions, not to mention the joys of Brexit uncertainty. This led to a total market decline of -47.8%, with an outlet percentage decline of 1.2% in 2020. However, as we head towards the second half of 2021 hopefully things are looking up.

Plant-Based Week – Future of Plant-Based Meals in the Public Sector
As part of Public Sector Catering’s fantastic Plant-Based Week, the jellybean team was in high attendance at the publication’s ‘Future of Plant-Based Meals’ webinar, where industry experts weighed in on the key issues around plant-based eating in the public sector.

Hot Foodie Trends
As a leading food and drink agency we make sure we stay ahead of the game when it comes to the latest foodie trends. So we always look forward to see what trends The Food People predict will be shaping menus and shopping baskets. We may be nearly half way through 2021, but with a rather stuttering start to the year due to Covid, now seems as good a time as any to take a look at what they are tipping to be the next big foodie trends. So, here we go…

Foodservice – Re-opening Right
The latest in Arena’s #AskArena series featured a panel discussion focussed on re-opening right when it comes to B&I contract catering. With a stellar line up including Allister Richards, COO, CH&CO; Hamish Cook, Head of Group Food Services – Global Operations, ISS; Rajat Chawla, Commercial & Business Excellence Director – Northern Europe, Aramark; Phil Sanders, Out of Home Commercial Director, Britvic Soft Drinks and JP Kloppers, Managing Director, Yoyo.

Food to Go Conference 2021
Pre-Covid the food to go (F2G) sector was outstripping the market. A hub for innovation and an ever-growing sector with players as diverse as McDonalds and LEON. MCA’s latest Food to Go Conference looked at how the sector has been affected by the past year and its prospects for recovering in 2021 and beyond. Here are our top takeouts from the day:

An industry perspective – Lumina panel discussion
The second session of the Lumina Food Strategy Forum focused on a more informal panel discussion around some of the key topics around reopening hospitality with Vita Mojo, MCA & Lumina. Here are our top take-outs:

Lumina shines a light on 2021
As the leading foodservice agency, we are proud members of the Lumina Food Strategy Forum, and as such regularly attend their insight debriefs to ensure we are up-to-the-minute when it comes to foodservice trends. The first of two sessions this week looked at the post lockdown landscape in the wake of Covid and how both industry and consumer behaviour will be affected moving forward with a specific look at the restaurant sector.

arena ‘in conversation’, jellybean event
As the leading foodservice agency, jellybean is proud to have partnered with Arena to sponsor an exclusive boutique online event gathering foodservice sales and marketing professionals together to exchange insights around the challenges of the past year, and those of the months ahead.

Arena – ‘Growing into 2021’
With an uncertain year ahead, it’s more important than ever to keep up-to-date with industry news and the ever-changing needs of today’s consumer. Arena’s latest virtual event ‘Growing into 2021’ provided valuable insight and thought-provoking discussions around the post-pandemic consumer and the future for foodservice. If you missed it, fear not! We’ve noted the key take outs below:

Arena – The Road to Recovery
If you missed the last Arena event ‘Hospitality – The Road to Recovery’ with Kate Nicholls OBE of UKHospitality, along with a panel discussion from leading industry figures, worry not. As a leading out of home agency we were there and here are some of my key take outs:

The Restaurant Conference 2021
The MCA Restaurant Conference is always a great event, and despite the current times, this year was no exception. Indeed, more than ever there feels a real need for the industry to come together to share learnings and insights in order to help navigate the choppy seas ahead. As most are currently closed or operating only take-away or delivery boxes, I suspect the virtual conference attracted even more attendees than in normal times. The line-up featured a who’s who of the restaurant world and tackled head-on the current issues and concerns about the future. As a leading foodservice agency, we were there to hear the latest, from the horse’s mouth, so to speak.
