The United Kingdom’s decision to leave the EU has coincided with a clear drop in the amount of visits that Brits made to restaurants, yet the amount being spent on these meals has increased, finds the latest foodservice quarterly report prepared by the NPD Group Inc. on behalf of the U.K. Seafish Authority. The study also confirms an upturn in out of home (OOH) seafood consumption with sales growing in most foodservice channels.
According to the report, the total OOH spend on meals for the 12 months that ended September 2016 was GBP 53.3 billion (USD 67.1 billion, EUR 63.5 billion), an increase of 3 percent year-on-year, based on 11.3 billion visits (up 1.3 percent). Crucially, the number of seafood servings increased 6.8 percent to more than 1 billion servings.
During this period, the average spend per seafood dish in OOH was GBP 6.18 (USD 7.78, EUR 7.36) – up very slightly year-on-year, but still well above the average for protein during the period of GBP 5.65 (USD 7.11, EUR 6.73), up GBP 0.09 (USD 0.11, EUR 0.10). Only beef and lamb had higher price points than seafood at GBP 6.70 (USD 8.44, EUR 7.98) and GBP 10.87 (USD 13.69, EUR 12.94) per serving, respectively.
Seafood growth was largely driven by the quick service restaurant (QSR) sector excluding fish and chip shops, which achieved total sales (all products) of GBP 20.1 billion (USD 25.3 billion, EUR 23.9 billion) in the 12-month period, a 4 percent rise year-on-year. The number of visits in QSR increased 2.3 percent to 5.5 billion and the number of servings grew almost 15 percent to 297.6 million.
Within QSR, seafood accounted for 15.5 percent of protein servings. In terms of product formats, fried fish dominated OOH seafood consumption with a 36.8 percent market share, followed by fish sandwiches (20.7 percent), shellfish (16.6 percent) and non-fried fish (9.9 percent).
In QSR, the average individual spend on seafood in Q3 2016 was GBP 3.70 (USD 4.66, EUR 4.41), up GBP 0.04 (USD 0.05, EUR 0.05) year-on-year and lower than the average for protein at GBP 3.96 (USD 4.99, EUR 4.71), up GBP 0.07 (USD 0.09, EUR 0.08). Within this category, only pork was cheaper at GBP 3.38 (USD 4.26, EUR 4.03) per spend.
NPD highlighted that fish sandwiches were the “major contributor” to seafood’s good performance in QSR in the quarter.
Meanwhile, the fish and chip shop channel experienced “a very positive quarter,” said NPD. The number of seafood servings increased by 5 percent to 182.2 million for the year with total sales amounting to GBP 1.1 billion (USD 1.4 billion, EUR 1.3 billion), up 1.7 percent, and the average individual spend on seafood up GBP 0.02 (USD 0.03, EUR 0.02) year-on-year to GBP 3.75 (USD 4.72, EUR 4.47). In this channel, seafood had a 78.6 percent share of protein servings.
NPD’s data also confirmed seafood servings in the full service restaurant (FSR) channel grew 2.5 percent to 151.4 million, while the total spend in the channel grew 3.7 percent to GBP 12.3 billion (USD 15.5 billion, EUR 14.6 billion) and the number of visits increased 2 percent to 1.3 billion. Seafood had a 19.4 percent share of protein servings in the 12-month period.
However, seafood servings in the work/college canteens channel declined 9 percent to 90.6 million with total spend down 1.3 percent to GBP 1.5 billion (USD 1.9 billion, EUR 1.8 billion).
