Demand

Understand what’s driving, or dampening, customer demand across restaurants, pubs, bars, cafés, and contract catering. Our focused reporting features dining trends, footfall patterns, booking behaviour, menu shifts, delivery and takeaway volumes, and the wider economic factors impacting consumer spend in hospitality. Whether you’re adapting to shifting weekday trade, reacting to seasonal fluctuations, or planning promotional strategies, this archive offers data-driven insights to help operators, chefs, and F&B leaders align operations with real-time market dynamics.

Aug- 2018 -

20 August

Analysis

HFSS food ads – key takeaways from the ASA’s latest rulings

The ASA has had a positive flurry of activity on high fat, salt or sugar (HFSS) food ads, delivering rulings in no less than four cases on 8 August. We look at the key “takeaways” for brands to consider when developing ads for these types of products. Kellogg’s Coco Pops…
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17 August

Advice

Raising the bar – an innovative way to meet demand for more flavours

The casual dining crunch has hit restaurants hard this year. A recent report from market insights company MCA shows growth in eating out is at its lowest level in five years. This is causing some restaurant chains to either restructure to stay afloat or call in the administrators. In contrast,…
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15 August

Features

Boozer or bust

During a World Cup of dizzy highs and gut-wrenching lows, the British public de-camped from their homes and places of work to our most iconic of locations: the bar, the local, the boozer and, more and more frequently, the gastropub. These are no longer the sole dominion of pork scratchings…
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9 August

Features

The changing appetite for bread

As a nation, there’s no doubt we love bread. The UK bakery market is worth a staggering £3.6bn and is one of the largest markets in the food industry.Not only is bread an important source of fibre and carbohydrates, it’s also highly versatile, which explains why it has been an…
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8 August

Features

Creating an outstanding outdoor dining experience

Creating a memorable experience in a restaurant or cafe can be quite the challenge as the market becomes increasingly saturated with competition in all corners. Making your hospitality space stand out has become an exciting challenge, with outdoor spaces now playing a critical role in customer dining. The fresh air…
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2 August

Features

Cutting a bigger slice of cake: growth in the catering industry

The catering industry is thriving in the UK. According to data from IBISWorld – a specialist in business information and market research – revenue for the catering services market sits at £1bn and it has experienced an annual growth of 1% since 2013, with a current workforce of approximately 28,600.…
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1 August

Food and Drink

Food operators hit by 75% heatwave vegetable price hike

Food operators face a price increase of up to 75% for high quality root vegetables, due to the recent heatwave and drought. Purchasing company Beacon has reported that vegetables have been shrinking in size and reducing in quantity, resulting in the price hike. Insight from Beacon supplier Ribble Farm has…
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Jul- 2018 -

31 July

Business

Late-night customers account for 83% of British foodservice growth

British people visit food or beverage outlets 257 million times between midnight and 7am every year, according to new figures. The data, released by market research firm, The NPD Group, for the year ending May 2018 suggested that the growing demand for late-night and early morning food and beverages consumed…
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25 July

Features

The evolution of the burger

Ten years ago, “burger” was a bit of a dirty word. A grubby indulgence you got at a fast-food chain as a treat. The junk food staple had garnered a pretty bad reputation thanks to the release of Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser and the 2004 documentary, Supersize Me.…
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24 July

Apps & Technology

Deliveroo hits back at Frank Field report

Deliveroo has issued to a statement to Catering Today hitting back at MP Frank Field following his report into the working conditions of the company’s riders. The door-to-door app said that it welcomes Field’s comments regarding the benefits of ‘gig-economy’ work, but says his report makes “a number of claims…
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