News
Mariage Frères to open five-story tea emporium in UK
The site claims to have the longest tea wall in the world.
UKHospitality warns against mandatory calorie labelling
The statement follows after the government announced that they will hold a consultation on requiring calorie labelling from businesses.
Pizza Hut launches nationwide pizza buffet
The pizza chain says that its for their customers who cannot visit during weekdays.
Pret A Manger reports 13.2% revenue growth for YE 2017
Like-for-like sales also went up to 3.2%.
LEON opens first restaurant in USA
This marks as the fast food chain’s 5th international outlet.
Food delivery orders increased to 36% in past six months, study reveals
As food delivery grew, cooking at home dropped to 89%.
Restaurants experienced 8.8% spend growth year-on-year in August, study says
Soaring prices drives Brits in planning to reduce expenditures despite spend growth.
Just Eat sponsors bike hire scheme in Edinburgh
Transport for Edinburgh says that this will attract a broad range of residents, visitors, commuters and students.
Farmer J opens second site in London
The healthy food brand is known for their signature "fieldtrays."
Casual dining visits up by 7%, report says
The sector now makes up of 5% in the whole out-of-home (OOH) foodservice industry. The casual dining sector continues to grow in Britain as it gained an extra 35 million visits or a 7% increase for the year ending June 2018, according to the latest study by The NPD Group. The market research company says its growth rate is four times faster than the overall out-of-home (OOH) foodservice industry. One of its drivers is positive consumer recommendations on social media or review sites. It went up to 38% year-on-year, three times faster than the OOH market. “Casual dining restaurants remain one of the key growth stories in Britain’s OOH foodservice market, despite the high-profile closures, rescues and restructuring seen in this sector in recent months. But while the market is expanding, success is not guaranteed,” Dominic Allport, NPD Group insights director, said. “One of the problems has been the tendency for some operators to scale up too quickly, with ‘quantity of sites’ outweighing ‘quality of sites’. But the biggest issue is the pressure on profit margins with business rates, rent, food and labour all costing more in an over-supplied market.“ Allport also reported that one of their solutions is expanding outside London where the costs for the sites are lower. An additional 23 million casual dining visits was experienced in Southeast and Southwest of England whereas London only had an extra 3 million. The family and the young adult segments contributed to its growth. Family visits grew to 11% while people aged 16-24 are up 15% and a 9% growth among those aged 25-34. Other strategies within the casual dining sector includes delivery services, which experienced a 9% increase year-on-year. The use of meal deals or promos went up to 16% year-on-year while order ahead/click and collect visits rose to 25% year-on-year. They are also expanding their breakfast options as it is revealed to be growing 10 times greater than the breakfast growth in the whole OOH market. “The continued growth of casual dining in Britain is good news for our foodservice industry. The ability of delivery platforms to reduce barriers to entry has particularly helped small brands to expand,” Allport further commented. However, he also warned that there will be more closures as they are still most at risk due to costs pressures.
Weekly Global News Wrap Up: Starbucks opens first site in Italy; McDonald's trials int'l menu items; Domino's Russia cuts short tattoo promo
Here is a summary of the most interesting QSR news stories of the week from around the world.
Social Media Wrap Up: Grill'd holds cooking class for kids; Tortilla partners with Arizona Iced Tea for fundraising campaign; The Naked Deli teases arrival of new hot bowls range
Find out what QSRs have been up to on social media this week.
Greggs takes on Starbucks with rival pumpkin spiced latte
The food-on-the-go retailer will also offer the drink for free to customers registering on their rewards app.
Marks & Spencer removes plastic cutlery from its store
The supermarket now joins the sustainability trend of banning disposable plastic items.
PizzaExpress reports £35.1 million in half-year earnings
Industry cost pressures and turbulent weather conditions reportedly affected the pizza chain’s financial performance. PizzaExpress’ earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) were down 16.3% to £35.1 million, the pizza chain’s half year results for the 26 weeks ended 1 July 2018 revealed. They also reported a 2.5% increase in group turnover to £262.8 million, while like-for-like sales were down by 1.1%. Underlying like-for-like sales grew by 0.9%, which excluded impact from the adverse weather conditions with that figure down at 0.7% if such were included.
Possibility of CVA moves closer for Gourmet Burger Kitchen
Rising costs still continues to damage restaurants in high streets.