Wholesale experts TWC Group, in partnership with food-to-go and out-of-home tracking programme MealTrak, reports the latest food-to-go market performance to 12 w/e 12 June 2023.
Whilst the number of out-of-home eating occasions were in line with the comparable period in 2022 on a 52 w/e basis, there is strong growth coming through in the latest quarter, with occasions +13% in 12 w/e 12 June 2023 vs. the equivalent period in 2022.
There has also been a shift in sub-channel performance, with food-to-go now outperforming ‘eating out’ occasions. In the latter, pubs continue to outperform (+16%), whilst restaurants remain sluggish (-1%).
Within food-to-go, it is not only retail channels which are in strong growth this period, with sandwich shops and specialists (+19%) and coffee shops and cafés (+17%) also back in positive territory. Interestingly, sandwich shops are benefiting from more on-premise occasions, whilst the growth of coffee shops is largely off-premise (i.e. consumed elsewhere). The strong performance of workplace catering (+29%) also suggests that employees are attending their workplaces more frequently than this time last year.
Topline performance (data to 12 June 2023):
| Latest 52 weeks | 52 weeks (year ago) | 52 w/e YOY change | Latest 12 weeks | 12 weeks (year ago) | 12 w/e YOY change | |
| Total out of home GB occasions | 3.660bn | 3.663bn | n/c | 888mn | 786mn | +13% |
| Total out of home GB Value | £22.339bn | £20.771bn | +8% | £5.550bn | £4.741bn | +17% |
Sub-channel performance (12 w/e 12 June 2023):
Commenting on the results, Tom Fender, Development Director at TWC, said:
“It is fantastic to see double-digit growth for food-to-go and out of home eating this period – and importantly this is not just in value terms (buoyed by inflation), but also the number of occasions, which were up +13% in the latest 12 weeks (vs. year ago). We’re also seeing significant changes below the surface of this topline performance, with foodservice channels catching back up with their retail counterparts.”
“Whilst ‘something inexpensive’ is the fastest growing mission this period, the shift in channels suggests that value perceptions are changing, and this mission does not necessarily always equate to a supermarket meal deal. Indeed, there is strong growth in this mission coming through coffee shops and sandwich specialists. Consumers are certainly still playing it safe though, with ‘regular favourite’ in strong growth, whilst ‘something a bit different’ remains firmly in decline. ‘Something sweet’ is also in strong growth this period, with cakes and pastries performing particularly well.”
Mealtrak is a vast data source so if you would like to know more of the detail behind these headlines, please contact Tom Fender at TWC (Tom@twcgroup.net) for more information.