While the United Kingdom’s booming foodservice sector today incorporates no end of diverse cuisines, the traditional fish and chip dinner is in the midst of a consumer renaissance, according to a new study.
Latest statistics provided by the U.K. Seafish Authority in its “Fish and Chips in Commercial Foodservice 2016” report show that sales of the iconic meal increased by more than 4 percent over the last two years to 333.6 million servings. More than 50 percent of these servings were in fish and chip shops and the number of servings in this channel increased by 6 percent or 10 million.
During the same two years, servings of fish and chips in pubs have increased by more than 9 percent or 5.5 million, giving the channel a 19 percent share of the market.
Seafish’s research identified that fish and chips are typically bought as a meal for two people (47 percent) and while 25 percent of respondents eat the meal alone, 21 percent buy it as a family meal to be eaten with children.
In comparison with the overall food and drink consumer, older consumers buy more fish and chips servings. Consumers aged 35 and over bought 69.4 percent of the fish and chip servings, up from 67.8 percent in 2015. The percentage of servings bought by consumers under 24 years old also increased from 20.3 percent to 21.4 percent. But the authority highlighted that this is still behind the overall average of 25.8 percent and suggested more work is required to attract younger consumers.
Action is also required to attract 25-34 year olds who are generally buying fewer servings of fish and chips, it said.
This research also found that fish and chips appeal to less affluent than average consumers, driven by purchases in quick service restaurants. In contrast, higher social class consumers buy fish and chips in pubs and full service restaurants.
Overall, spend in the country’s foodservice industry increased by 2.5 percent year-on-year in the third-quarter of last year, which was only slightly slower than the growth seen in Q2 2016. The sector has remained buoyant through slightly increased traffic and a near 2 percent increase in average eater spend, driven by rising prices.
Seafood servings and the number of outlet visits involving a serving of seafood increased last year. Indeed, seafood was the strongest growth protein for both these measures, said Seafish.
NPD Crest data, published for the 12 months ending September 2016, found the total spend on seafood in U.K. foodservice increased 1.5 percent to GBP 3.1 billion (USD 3.9 billion, EUR 3.6 billion), with servings up 6.8 percent to 1 billion and traffic growing 6 percent to 907 million visits.
