News and Trends

 

Bakery and cafe chains grew led by Greggs, GAIL, and Pret A Manger. The UK fast-food industry saw a surge in breakfast sales, a decline in burger chains, and shifting consumer habits in 2024, setting the stage for a highly competitive 2025. Insights firm Meaningful Vision studied the dynamic market trends that shaped 2024 for the QSR industry and revealed some interesting data.  Winners and losers Out of Home Consumer behaviour patterns showed significant variation across fast-food categories with bakeries and sandwich shops emerging as the star performers, enjoying a 4.7% surge in foot traffic.  Join QSR Media UK community Your e-mail address This impressive growth was fuelled by the expansion of major chains like Greggs, Gail's, and Pret A Manger, capitalising on an enduring demand for convenient and affordable meal options, and highlighting the importance of restaurant location assessment and geographical sales area analysis as integral elements of a successful marketing st...

 

  Source: Ginsters Butter Chicken Bake From pies, slices, bakes, and quiches, to crackers, loaves, rolls, and buns, the nation’s bakery brands have been busy of late rolling out new savoury offerings. The food-to-go sector has been boosted by several snacking pastries with comfortingly familiar flavour combinations, along with some petite quiches disrupting the standard family-sized format. There are also new options for those wishing to indulge in rich savoury flavours at home. Here are the latest savoury innovations from the bakery sector: Pies and slices, Pukka Five new recipes have been added to Pukka’s savoury pastry line-up including an All Day Breakfast Pie, Sausage Casserole Pie, and Chicken, Ham & Leek Pie, as well as a Cheese & Bacon Toastie Slice and Margherita Pizza Slice. Pukka said its trio of new pies – each with a rsp of £1.99 and rolled out at Morrisons, Tesco, and Asda stores – is aiming to disrupt the pie fixture with tasty recipes delivering on the brand...

Photo from Greggs Facebook page. It’s reported total sales for 2023 reached £1.81b. British chain Greggs reported a total sales increase of 19.6% with like-for-like sales in company-managed shops going up 13.7%, compared to a year before boosted by food-to-go breakfast visits. According to the brand’s financial statement for the 52 weeks ended 30 December 2023, the total share of food-to-go visits went up 8.2% compared to 7.7% in 2022. Share of food-to-go breakfast visits also increased to 19.6%, which according to the company makes them the number one choice for breakfast options, toppling McDonald’s. Roisin Currie, Greggs’ Chief Executive said there is potential to open 3,000 outlets in the UK, as they prepare to open the chain’s 2,500th shop in the coming weeks. Aside from that, Greggs said it is also keen on expanding their share of the evening food-to-go market by keeping more shops open longer. “Our multi-channel strategy is allowing us to grow home delivery and Click + Collect o...

  Everyone wants in on the breakfast action   The first Saturday of February is celebrated as National Ice Cream for Breakfast Day. The point of “food holidays” is a bit of a mystery – a cynic would say dolla dolla bill y’all, not us though. Who doesn’t dream of unabashedly gorging on ice cream first thing in the morning?    According to lore, this day was created on a blizzardy Feb morning in the ’60s when a nice lady called Florence Rappaport decided she wanted to give her six bored kids a sugar rush early in the morning. And history was born.    Ice cream brand Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams celebrated this day this year with the launch of an entire range of desserts featuring breakfast flavors. Jeni’s has been celebrating this day with special...