Press Releases
- Horizons urges food manufacturers to take NPD for the catering sector more seriously - Comment, March 2010
- Sterling weakness could help hospitality UK see modest signs of recovery - Comment, March 2010
- Eating out expected to rise over Christmas, but it could be a grim January ahead as consumers rein-in spending further - QuickBite, December 2009
- Foodservice operators hike price of starters and desserts while cost of main courses remains flat - Menurama, November 2009
- Pubs lead the way at maintaining margins through menu engineering - Menurama, October 2009
- Cost-conscious consumer here to stay for the long-term - QuickBite, September 2009
- The downturn could be levelling, but keep costs under control urges Horizons - Comment, August 2009
- Canny diners find ways to eat out for less - QuickBite, July 2009
- Innovative promotions keep American consumers eating out as economy hits rock-bottom - Comment
- The changing face of British menus: has sirloin steak lost its appeal for good? - Menurama, April 2009
- Eating out under more pressure as supermarket sector steps up 'meal deal' offers - QuickBite, April 2009
- A recession puts your business acumen to the test - Comment, March 2009
- Can we predict who will survive the crunch? - Comment, February 2009
- Save it for something special mentality means going out less but spending more - QuickBite, January 2009
Horizons News
Horizons urges food manufacturers to take NPD for the catering sector more seriously
Food manufacturers should be encouraged to take the catering market more seriously when it comes to new product development, consider using the sector to launch products and build brands, and should stop viewing catering as just a bolt-on to retail sales.
Restaurants need new deals to keep their slice of the cake
As usual, the new year has brought a profusion of sales to the high street and restaurants have joined the shops and stores offering discounts. You can find deals such as two for one at Café Rouge; main courses for £7 and kids eat half price at Pizza Hut; half-price vouchers at PizzaExpress; and second main meal for just £1 at Zizzi. These deals have become an accepted and reliable way for mid-spend restaurants to build consumer traffic in quiet times. But they have now been around for more than 12 months and their currency is in danger of becoming debased. Restaurant chains have got themselves into a tight corner over discounting that is likely to be difficult and time-consuming to get out of. And with so much competition on the high street between broadly similar outlets, it would take a brave operator to put an end to price promoting when the competition continues to discount. Although money-off vouchers and promotions account for less than 10 per cent of a restaurant’s turnover, they have generated vital additional revenue during quiet trading periods.
Pub food trends
Horizons offers up the first in a quarterly series of snapshots showing where pub food fits into the total foodservice market
Food spend went up in pubs in December – but not as much as in previous years.
That’s one of the key statistics to emerge from the latest quarterly QuickBite survey from pub food research specialist Horizons.
Based on a regular survey of more than 1,000 consumers, the quarterly survey offers a fascinating barometer of the foodservice trends, and where people are choosing to eat out.
Unsurprisingly, the foodservice sector as a whole saw consumers tighten their belts this Christmas.
Menurama analyses increasing soup availability on menus
Thanks to the recession and an ever-growing interest in healthy eating, soups are taking British menus by storm, with chefs finding interesting new ways of creating crowd-pleasing variants on the dish all year round. In Asia, soup is a very big deal. Whether it’s pho in Vietnam, miso in Japan, tom yum in Thailand, laksa in Malaysia or won ton soup in China, it forms a staple part of the diet for many Asian societies.
Daniel Galmiche, head chef of the Vineyard at Stockcross, knows this only too well, having perfected his soup-making when working at L’Aigle d’Or in Singapore, where he was expected to create two different soups for the menu each day. “There was no room for error,” he says. “The soups had to be perfect because there was such a demand for them.” French-born Galmiche also credits his mother’s consistent soup-cooking as an influence on him, and cites France’s brasseries as thriving soup hubs. “Brasseries usually have a soup of the day or speciality of the region, like soup de poisson in the South of France, or soups in Brittany made with different bouillons,” he explains.
But on this side of the Channel, soup has traditionally been considered more of a winter warmer, or comfort food; its puréed vegetable bases seeming somewhat prosaic in contrast to the fragrantly infused broths of its eastern cousins. And while we may occasionally see the odd gazpacho rear its chilly head come summer, a year-round soup offering has been limited in the UK.
Foodservice operators hike prices of starters and desserts while cost of main courses remain flat
The cost of ordering a three-course meal in the UK’s pubs, restaurants and hotels has gone up over the past year, despite main course prices remaining fairly stable. Horizons’ Menurama service reveals that the price of starters and desserts has risen year-on-year, with pubs showing the largest price increases.
The research, based on data from over 400 menus from the UK’s top 100 leading chain and independent pubs, restaurants and hotels, shows that the average cost of a three-course meal across all eating-out establishments, excluding drink, has risen from £17.40 to £18.45 over the past year – up 6%. An average starter now costs £5.24 – up from £4.70 last year. A main course costs an average of £8.86 – up from £8.73, while a dessert now costs £4.36, up from £3.97 in 2008.
The cost conscious consumer is here to stay
Despite the recession consumers are still eating out but have reduced their average spend when they do so by going to cheaper outlets and choosing those offering good money-off deals.
