Average spend down for over-50s, up for youngsters


Although overall average spend on food and drink has increased since 2013, consumers aren’t spending as much as they were during the evenings, and the over-50s are spending less, full stop, according to research by the NPD Group. Overall, average spend per visit when


eating out is up just 0.7%, from £4.54 in 2013 to £4.57 this year, but at the younger end of the market it’s increasing much faster; in both the 18-24 and 35-49 categories, spend is up 3.8%. However, those aged 50-64 have cut their spending by 5% on average, while those over 64 are spending 6.4% less than they were in 2013. When it comes to eating out in the evenings, spend is down for everyone except the 35- 49 year olds who are forking out on average £6.84 for dinner in 2014 as opposed to £6.58 last year. In terms of different restaurant types,


average spend per visit has risen in every category except full-service restaurants and travel and leisure. While it’s risen relatively slowly in the quick-service sector, with quick-service food up from £4.38 in 2013 to £.4.41 this year, the most striking growth is again in casual dining where average spend across the whole day is up from £9.69 to £9.97 in 2014. Even in this sector, though, spend remained pretty much static in the evenings at around £11.50.


Source: NPD Group


order and has thrived due to its diverse audi- ence appeal – from families, to students, office workers and tourists.”


Operators in this space, such as Dindin


Kitchen, as well as the increasing number of street food vans that are popping up across the country everywhere from shopping centres to music festivals, also satisfy con- sumers’ increasing cravings for something authentic and different, Tayebi believes. “The market for new concepts continues to expand with a recent trend in undiscovered cuisines, such as Persian food,” she notes.


Fine dining: doing brilliantly At the opposite end of the market, fine din- ing continues to do brilliantly, according to Backman. “They didn’t have a recession; they just carried on,” he says. Yet operators in this seemingly evergreen sector have had to evolve to keep up, says Frances Atkins, co-owner of the Yorke Arms in Yorkshire, which was ranked third in The Sunday Times Top 100 UK restaurants in 2013.


Restaurant Insight Report | September 2014


Gourmet Burger Kitchen “Casual dining is becoming so good in


Yorkshire that fine dining has to work a lit- tle harder to produce the same value,” she explains, adding that the style of service cus- tomers are looking for has also changed. “As a business, you tend to change with your guests, and the general public is now looking for unobtrusive but attentive service with probably less formality,” she notes. “But the demand for quality is more prevalent than ever and eating habits are also becom- ing more exploratory, with people wanting to try new things.” Scott Ashby, group operations director at


The Social Company, agrees: “The current market is packed with great competition and an educated diner seeking to be wowed, which is tremendously exciting for us all.”


More meals out but lower spend Looking at the market purely from the perspective of customer spend, the latest figures from both the NPD Group and Hori- zons show average spend across the major- ity of commercial restaurant categories has increased over the last two years. According to Horizons, average food and


“The general public is now looking for unobtrusive but attentive service with probably less formality” Frances Atkins, the Yorke Arms


beverage spend per meal (when taking into account restaurants, quick-service restau- rants, pubs and hotels) went up from £8.45 in 2012 to £8.70 in 2013, while the NPD Group’s latest research also shows increases in all sectors except full-service restaurants. Says Lavenant: “Customer spend is


Ed’s Easy Diner 6


increasing every year. Aside from the purely inflationary reasons for this, we have seen customers treating themselves out of home, but cutting out non-essential trips. “Up until the beginning of 2014, we were seeing a decrease in the number of visits, but an increase in average spend. Now both are increasing as consumer confidence and the economy are recovering. Average spend on an out-of-home visit (all channels) is £4.57, up from £4.33 in 2009.” Horizons’ latest Eating Out-Look survey of consumers, which took place in June 2014, and uses a different methodology to the NPD figures quoted above, however, tells a slightly different story, showing on average there has been an increase in meals eaten out, but a decrease in average spend per meal over the last year. “It shows on average over-16s ate out 2.2 times in June 2014 versus 1.8 times in June 2013, but average spend per meal was £12.72 in June 2014, compared with £13.30 a year


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