MCA Top of Mind Briefing
As a leading food and drink agency, the eating out market is our bread and butter (so to speak) which is why we are MCA Insight’s Forum members. One of the benefits of membership is access to their regular debriefs ensuring we are completely up to date on market trends and dynamics, so here are our top ten take-outs from the latest on the eating out market from MCA:
What’s Driving Food to Go in 2019?
We recently attended the annual MCA Food to Go Conference at Ham Yard Hotel, London. With the MCA forecasting that the Food to Go market is set to reach a value of £21.2bn in 2019 and continue outperforming growth from the wider eating out market, it therefore represents a vital area of growth for operators. We heard from an array of fantastic speakers including Welcome Break, Sustainable Restaurant Association, LEON, Pret A Manger, Yo! Sushi, Eat and many more.
Here are 5 Food to Go Trends arising from the day that we think will impact and drive Food to Go growth in 2019.
The Future of Convenience 2019 – 5 key take-outs
We recently attended the HIM Future of Convenience 2019 event and spent a fascinating day immersed in the exciting and ever-changing world of convenience retail. We heard from an array of speakers from retailers, suppliers and industry experts.
MCA Insight Food Strategy Forum 2018
Thanks to MCA Insight and HIM for the fantastic and informative Food Strategy Forum last week. The new afternoon session allowed us to enjoy a fabulous lunch at the Soho Hotel before settling in to listen to the MCA team taking us through their 2018 summary insights into the Out of Home market performance and Foodservice Delivery.
Top 5 tips to reach Gen Z
Just as many brands are getting to grips with engaging millennials, Generation Z is emerging. Who are they? GZ are people who were born from 1995 onwards (13- 23 year old) – and they are starting to make their presence known as they enter the workforce and begin to earn their own income.
MCA Marketing in Foodservice Conference 2018
Every year MCA Insight holds its marketing in food service conference allowing food service marketing people to gather and hear from industry leading lights, as well as network and exchange learnings and ideas.
10 things you need to know about Convenience in 2018
This month we visited the National Space Centre in Leicester for the launch of the hotly awaited Association of Convenience Store’s Local Shop Report. This annual report provides a wealth of information about the performance of the sector as a whole and highlights the key trends and developments that everyone working in convenience needs to know.
Arena Autumn Event
This Arena Autumn event rang the changes, with a new venue in the shape of the imposing Banking Hall in the heart of the City of London. The line-up included a talk on the market from Simon Stenning of MCA and the headline interview hosted by Mark Lewis of Hospitality Action with Frank Gleeson, CEO and Regional President of Northern Europe Aramark and Jon Knight, CEO of Jamie Oliver Restaurant Group. With the day billed as ‘When contract catering meets the high street’ for obvious reasons, Simon took to the stage to take us through an overview of the eating out market and then onto the dynamics affecting the branded restaurant and contract catering world. Some of the key take-outs included:
MCA Eating Out Market Debrief
As a leading integrated food and drink agency we make it our business to keep up to date with the latest trends and dynamics in the eating out market. Part of this ongoing commitment is our membership of the MCA Forum who shared their latest report on the eating out market last week. As you can imagine this a hugely comprehensive report which covers off economic trends, operator challenges, consumer insights and much more (and well worth joining to receive). However, these are my top five take-outs from the half day briefing to help keep you in the loop when it comes to foodservice, hospitality and eating out as a whole.
Food for Thought – The Challenger Brand Mindset
Since the days of David vs. Goliath the underdog has won out over the big guys. As the leading food and drink agency, the underdog or as we call it ‘challenger brand mind-set’ is one we love. There is nothing better than shaking-up a market with a new entrant who can re-write the rules and take no prisoners. Don’t get me wrong, there is a place for the big household names and we are lucky enough to work with a number of food and drink big boys across foodservice, convenience, retail and consumer markets, but even when we’re working with the established names we bring a challenger brand mentality to bear.
MCA Food Concept Study Tour – July 2018
On the 13th of July Clodagh & Ellie were the lucky ones to be chosen for this month’s MCA Food Concept Study Tour.
Drinks Trends
For an event entitled Alcohol Trends and Innovations the day’s conference included a surprising amount of content around the drive for low and no alcohol. Doubtless driven by those pesky Millennials and Gen Z lot who don’t seem to value the good old fashioned binge drinking culture my generation and those before worked so hard to establish (only joking). Equally the omnipresent march of the health and wellness trend, will have had a fair amount to do with it, as consumers look to reduce calories, drink less and generally consume more wholesome food and drink. That’s not to say volume drinking is dead, Jägermeister themselves don’t condone or promote the ‘Jägerbomb’, but there is no denying this consumer-led ritual is alive and well in UK bars and clubs. However, despite the UK having a drinking population of 30 million (the large majority of whom, 96%, drink within the recommended limits, with only around 4% straying into the realms of ‘a problem’ – I’ll refrain from naming any beans) there is an overall trend for consumers to drink less, but better, with an increased focus on the quality, provenance and brand story. Drink still plays an important part in our social culture, both out of home in bars and restaurants (on trade) and when purchased in retail to drink at home (off trade).
MCA Insight
On 8th June two of our beans – Laura and Leigh – joined the MCA Food Study Tour around London to discover the latest food trends that are impacting the out of home market.
MCA Menu & Food Trends Report April 2018
As a leading food and drink agency, specialising in foodservice, retail and convenience, we make it our business to stay on top of the latest trends. Pulling key tangible insights from market information and trends data is crucial to the work we do with our clients and therefore attending events such as the MCA debrief comes high on our agenda.
A Nation of Wasters
Research has indicated that, as a nation, we throw away a third of the food we produce. Aside from the harmful methane it creates when it ends up in landfill, and the huge amounts of resources used to create it (such as water and fuel for transport) being wasted, the real choker for me is the 8.4 million people in the UK who are struggling to afford to eat. This is equivalent to the entire population of London. 270,000 tonnes of the food that goes to waste each year is still edible. That’s enough for 650 million meals.
MCA Food Study Tour 2018
On the 6th April 2018, our very own Beans, Natalie and Nick, attended the MCA Food Study Tour in London to discover the latest food trends and of course, in true Jellybean style, try lots of new food and drink from up and coming concepts. They found some good’uns – take a look!
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Arena Savoy Lecture 2018
The Arena Savoy Lecture is the jewel in the crown of the foodservice networking calendar, so as the leading foodservice agency, we were of course there in force. We were joined by our lovely clients from McCormick Flavour Solutions, official sponsors of the event, with their French’s Mustard and Frank’s Red Hot Sauces. The evening kicked-off with networking and bubbles (but of course) and the first talk of the evening, as Kate Nicholls, CEO of newly formed UKHospitality took to the stage to share what the merger of BHA and ALMR means for the industry. In a nutshell, the new trade body aims to ensure that the hospitality industry has a united and singular voice, which when you consider that the sector employs £2.9million people, accounts for 10% of UK employment, 6% of business and 5% of GDP, not to mention £130bn contribution to the economy (more than fashion and all the creative industries combined) and £40bn contribution to tax receipts, equal to the entire defence budget or the Brexit divorce bill, is a rather large voice indeed!
MCA Top of Mind Briefing 2018
The annual MCA Top of Mind Report debrief offers both an overview of the eating out market over the past year, as well as some predictions for the year ahead. Now in its 11th year, the briefing took us through macros trends, 2017 consumer behaviours, predictions for 2018, a state of the nation across casual dining, growth drivers, the results of their decision maker survey and of course concepts to watch for 2018.
Food to Go Conference 2018
The MCA annual Food To Go conference is a must attend for anyone in this dynamic sector and this year boasted some heavyweight speakers including the godfather of food to go, Julian Metcalfe of Prȇt and Itsu fame and Gerry Ford founder and group CEO of Caffè Nero. Currently the UK food to go market is set to reach a value of £20.7bn in 2018, outperforming the wider eating out market and retail with growth set to be around 2.8% compared to the 1.5% predicted growth for the eating out market, making it a land of opportunity for operators. But why is this? Well quite simply there are more of us, working longer and commuting more, we are ‘time-poor’ and grabbing food ‘on the hoof’ as table meals are replaced by food in the car, on the train, at our desks, etc. Whilst the proliferation of outlets and choice means that picking up food on the go is easy and we have a wide range of cuisines and formats to choose from.
