As you may or may not be aware, the Environment Act 2021 passed in November 2021 along with the food waste disposal rules are set to change and the implications for any organisation generating food waste in England are sizeable.
As a leading food and drink marketing agency covering both away from home and convenience channels (as well as consumer) we look forward to the quarterly Lumina Intelligence briefings to help ensure we keep up to date with the latest trends in the eating out market. Here are my top 10 take outs from yesterday’s Food Strategy Forum debrief…
You may recall my last Lumina food strategy forum exec summary blog was split into the good news and the bad news. I’m sad to say that the weight of bad news is rather overwhelming this time around, however that isn’t to say there isn’t some good news. As ever things are changing on a daily basis as this debrief happened on 21st September two days before the Chancellor’s ‘mini budget’. However, that said, it offers up a useful snapshot of the market. My top take outs from the debrief are as follows:
The Lumina team are no stranger to a food tour, well versed as they are with the hottest new concepts in town. But this time they wanted to mix things up a bit and treat the Food Strategy Forum members to a tour around not Soho, but Angel and not one, but three meals! Had I had known I perhaps would have opted for an elasticated waist but that frankly is my only complaint.
The start of this month saw the kick-off of MAD//Fest’s three-day long festival. Full of forward-thinking, fraternising and food, the bean team were in attendance not only to join the hub of innovation but to collect a Wing Award from the Alliance of Independent Agencies. That’s right, Jellybean have scooped up the best B2B campaign for yet another year, this time for our campaign with Philadelphia – ‘You Don’t Know Philly’.
Following on from the Lumina Food Strategy Forum Debrief (read here), we were led by 2 brilliant Lumina hosts around Central London, exploring innovative restaurant concepts and tapping into key trends.
As ever the Lumina Foodservice strategy forum was a deluge of data and insight. A hugely informative and useful look at the eating out market and of course as a leading food and drink agency with over 35 years in foodservice we were there to ensure we keep on top of the latest market dynamics and trends.
There is of course good news and bad news, so we’ll start with the bad first (you’ll be relieved to see the good list is longer!) …
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:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
“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.
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.
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.
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…
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.
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:
