Industry News: 83% of British Foodservice Growth Due to Late Night Custom

03^rd August '18

Catering Today has found that in Britain, people visited food and beverage outlets 257 million times between 12am and 7am each year. This is according to research by The NPD Group which suggests it could be a new source of potential growth for the foodservice sector.

Restaurants, pubs, coffee shops, fast food outlets, takeaways, vending machines and work canteens, a group of foodservice outlets known as the ‘eat-out-of-home’ (OOH) foodservice industry, got more than 11.3 billion visits in a year. 83% of this growth is attributable to overnight customers.

A shift in working patterns and the demand for more late-night drinking opportunities has been suggested by Catering Today as the underlying cause behind this growth.

The OOH foodservice industry has grown by 43 million additional visits in 2016 and 2017.

While London tops British cities for late night demand with 26%, Liverpool, Manchester, Sheffield, Leeds, Newcastle, Glasgow and Edinburgh aren’t far behind with 20% growth.

Overnight OOH foodservice industry surpassed 1bn in consumer spend at the end of May 2018 with a reported worth close to 1.2bn. The NPD Group predicts continued growth of up to 1.5bn by 2020.

Dominic Allport of The NPD Group commented that “What we are seeing in London and other major cities is a welcome growth trend that can benefit many operators.”

Has your business considered renting to respond to late-night demand?

Source: Catering Today