News and Trends

More than 81% of Brits have already returned or expect to return to the office this year, new research reveals. A poll of 1,000 people by ProSapient, a machine learning executive research platform, finds September was the month the majority of respondents (28%) stated as the earliest they will return to the office. When it comes to choosing a food outlet for lunch, the survey shows consumers rank hygiene as the most important factor, followed by risk of exposure to Covid-19 or crowdedness, then personal food taste. The research found that 39% of consumers are purchasing lunch from food outlets, takeaways or supermarkets, only 3% are willing to venture outside and have a sit-down lunch in a restaurant or food outlet. More than half of Brits (55%) said they would spend the same amount on lunch as pre-Covid, but 25% said would spend more money on lunch. Source

  www.bakeryandsnacks.com , 25th August 2020 Aryzta – best known for its Cuisine de France and Otis Spunkmeyer brands – has been struggling to halt the decline in earnings, particularly hard hit by coronavirus lockdowns in the US. It has struggled to halt a decline in earnings, despite putting in place a €200m cost-cutting programme and a major reduction in net debt. The company has also been battling efforts by dissident shareholders – led by Veraison and Cobas, which hold around 20% of the shares – to oust the current Board in a bid to reverse the decline in shareholder value, down more than 80% since late 2018. Both sides are set for a showdown at the Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) scheduled on September 16, 2020. ‘A new chapter in the company’s history’ Last month, Aryzta confirmed it had received approaches from several unsolicited parties interested in taking over the group. At the time, Gary McGann said he would step down as chairman if a deal had not been secured before th

 Peter Backman's insight  It seems to me that most of the comment about the current state of the foodservice sector has focused on the infrastructure – the numbers of businesses that have failed, the decline in sales, the redundancies and so on. This all goes under the heading of the supply side. But the future, as always, depends on the consumer – the demand side. So, what does that future look like? We have the next few months to get through – maybe longer, before we can start to make assumptions. There is the potential for further waves of covid for example. Nevertheless, I think there are some factors that we should be looking out for.  We can probably speculate, fairly accurately, that consumers generally will be poorer. They will have drawn down on their savings, they may be out of a job, or in a job but earning less. Of course, this is not true of everyone. Some will have improved their financial position and prospects; others will have seen their prospects diminished far wo

Gordon Ramsay – I am still planning to add 50 sites in the UK Gordon Ramsay’s restaurant business made a profit of more than £15 million last year and is still planning to open 50 venues across the UK.  The chef is also planning a major expansion into Asia with 200 sites in the next five years. His ambitions to ‘create a billion-dollar dining proposition’ are unaffected by the covid-19 pandemic. Ramsay believes the restaurants will create around 2,000 jobs in the UK including some in head office. “We have big dreams, big plans and a global strategy so ambitious it takes my breath away,” he told The Daily Mail. “We have had to acknowledge and review the impact of the horrendous coronavirus pandemic.  We continue to be optimistic and ambitious, knowing it is more important than ever before to invest in our industry, to support suppliers and to create jobs.” At present, Ramsay’s restaurants are concentrated in London.

 

  At some point, everyone breaks down and decides to indulge in a sweet treat. And when they do, baked goods often find themselves in salivating consumers’ sights. The impact of COVID-19 Even before the pandemic, consumers were changing how they satisfy their sweet tooth. In-store impulse buys were shrinking, and planned indulgence was increasing, necessitating longer shelf life. Increasingly, consumers were valuing the experience of eating those baked products at home.[1] Now, in light of COVID-19, market intelligence firm Mintel found that consumers are interested in better-for-you sweet baked goods that still taste great. Consider that: 32% of consumers in the U.S. say they would be interested in cookies with low sugar. 74% of cake consumers in Spain think sugar should be reduced in cakes. 40% of consumers in India say they would pay more for biscuits that contain healthy ingredients. And, if you can use functional ingredients or claim to provide an immunity boost, that’s even

  thefoodpeople.co.uk With the scheme offering 50% off meals up to the value of £10 per person, it was of little surprise to learn that the first two weeks of the 'Eat Out To Help Out' scheme had already been used 35 million times, as a post-lockdown public sought familiarity in bars and restaurants throughout the UK. Available from Monday to Wednesday each week, these opening figures demonstrate nearly half of the nation taking part, as investment into the hospitality sector enjoys much needed growth in the wake of COVID-19. A nearly 30% rise in like for like bookings compared to the same time last year shows how valuable this lifeline has already become for some, but with this has come added pressure and strain due to great demand in reduced capacity establishments. Co-founder of thefoodpeople, Charles Banks, shared his thoughts on the early results of the scheme: "Some 35 million meals in two weeks, in 85k participating establishments, in terms of an incentive to resto

  www.nutraingredients.com In Euromonitor's newly released  webinar ​, Amrutha Shridhar, research consultant for consumer insights, explains that a 'consumer type' categorisation is much more helpful to brands and companies than basic demographic categorisation because the latter can give a skewed view of consumers' lifestyles, daily habits, and decision drivers. This year’s report – generated through Euromonitor's global lifestyle survey (Jan-Feb 2020) – outlines a total of 11 consumer types. The report also provides insight into each consumer type's path to purchase, and how their purchasing decisions might have been affected by COVID-19, to help companies create targeted marketing and communication strategies. Self-care aficionado 5%​ Interestingly, this year's list of consumer types includes a new-comer which has evolved from the ongoing trend for natural and preventative health care measures. Making up 5% of the global population, the Euromonitor report

  www.just-food.com A sale of struggling European bakery business Aryzta is said to be still on the cards with US-based peers Flowers Foods and Hostess Brands reportedly among potential buyers. The Irish Times reported this morning (21 August), quoting unnamed market sources, that along with Flowers and Hostess, Japan's  Yamazaki Baking and Mexican bakery firm Grupo Bimbo may be interested in acquiring Aryzta, which is under pressure from its two-largest shareholders to revamp the board in an effort to revitalise the business. Back in April, Aryzta, which is listed in both Switzerland and Ireland, hired French investment bank Rothschild & Co. to review strategic options for the company, including a possible disposal. Despite selling off around EUR380m (US$450.6m) in non-core assets and raising EUR800m from the equity market in 2018, Aryzta has still failed to turn the company around, particularly in its key North American market where it has struggled for some time.

Namnews, 20th August 2020 Caterforce has appointed Joanna Halucha as its new Group Buying Manager at its head office team in Cheshire. She joins the foodservice buying and marketing group from Country Range where she spent almost 6 years as a Category Buyer. Halucha replaces Kelly Orme and will be working with the buying team to develop and deliver the buying strategy for the Caterforce members. The group highlighted that one of her key focuses will be managing and developing the Caterforce own brand range, Chefs’ Selections. Gary Mullineux, Managing Director at Caterforce, commented: “Joanna has fantastic experience and coming from a Buying Group means she already understands the set up so can hit the ground running. “With all the challenges the industry is facing at the moment, it is a key time for Caterforce and our members and Joanna will not only strengthen our buying team, but also help us to achieve our goal of growing the Chefs’ Selections brand.” Caterforce announced at the en

  Namnews, 20th August 2020 The new study by Waitrose has found that one in four people are now shopping online for groceries at least once a week – double the amount seen in 2019. Whilst the coronavirus lockdown has been the catalyst behind the shift, the supermarket suggests this change in buying behaviour is now “irreversible”. The  How Britain Shops Online report  from Waitrose also found that 77% of people now do at least some of their grocery shopping online, compared to 61% a year ago. The study highlights that the most marked increase in online grocery shopping is within the over-55 age group, where regular online shoppers have nearly trebled from 8% in 2019 to 23% this year. These habits are likely to have been altered permanently with 40% of people polled by Waitrose saying they will shop online more in the long term than they did before the outbreak. Meanwhile, nearly 20% of people stated they’ll use a wider variety of online services such as fast delivery and click & co

  20th August 2020, Namnews The food and grocery market in the UK is set to grow by 10% – or by £19.1bn to £211bn – between 2019 and 2022, with the pandemic accelerating change in the industry. This is according to a  new report from IGD  which examines the potential impact of COVID-19 on the overall market during the next three years, with a breakdown of expected implications and performance on individual channels. As widely reported, the pandemic has accelerated the shift to online, with IGD expecting the channel to retain the loyalty of new shoppers in the longer term. However, discount is predicted to become the fastest-growing channel in 2021 and 2022 as shoppers look to economise due to rising unemployment. Following recent dramatic increases in shopper numbers and bigger order sizes, online will be the fastest-growing channel in 2020 with it overtaking hypermarkets in value terms  (see table below) . IGD is forecasting value growth of 59.2% (£7bn) over the period to 2022 with on