The Emergence of 'Grab and Go'
If you are looking for the next food service boom, look no further, the grab-and-go market increased by 31.7% in 2022 to £21.4bn, and the picture is even brighter for 2023, with forecasts it will grow a further 4.1% to £22.2bn.
In a recent study by Nestlé, 60% of respondents had eaten breakfast, brunch, lunch or dinner on the go. Even Gordon Ramsay's opened a grab-and-go restaurant at Heathrow Terminal 5 for passengers short of time.
Why Has the Grab and Go Market Grown So Quickly?
When mobile technology arrived, it laid down the carpet for what's now known as the deliver now landscape. Consumers are moving faster than ever before. They're demanding and expecting instantly available, portable and convenient products.
5 Data-backed Ways to Maximise Profits With a Grab-and-Go Menu
It's Time to Cater to The Future Generation
The shift to grab-and-go dining will predominantly be driven by millennials and Gen Z. A study conducted by the National Restaurant Association in 2021 found that 66% of millennials and 71% of Gen Z consumers prefer to purchase convenient and ready-to-eat food.
The younger generations tend to eat smaller, snack-sized meals throughout the day instead of larger traditional sit-down meals. Keep this in mind when you're designing your grab-and-go menu. Ask yourself if it is easily portable. Analyse the nutrition and portion size as well. Your future customers will want to eat something other than a meal that requires a sit down after eating it.
Use Technology To Provide Reliability and Consistency
The words 'grab-and-go' should mean just that. Not long ago, 'fast food' was a new unseen way of dining. Customers now expect quicker, more convenient service than a fast-food restaurant. Also, it's worth noting that labour costs are often the largest expense to a food business. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, as of 2021, labour costs accounted for about 30% of a restaurant's revenue.
Investing in processes and tech to drive efficiency, such as ordering apps, point-of-sale tech, micro markets, dispensing machines, and automatic payment facilities, will all help provide a seamless grab-and-go experience. Unfortunately, all this investment won't come cheap. Still, it will last years to come, help your business capitalise on a booming consumer trend, and you can sell products with little to no staff compared to more traditional methods.
Create Cash With Cross-Selling Opportunities
According to a 2022 report by Harvard Business Review, customers who come in for grab-and-go items are more likely to make additional impulse purchases, increasing the average spend.
Providing the perfect opportunity for grab-and-go businesses to offer related products. For example, coffee is a highly desirable grab-and-go product that goes perfectly with baked, easy-to-carry and quick-to-eat products such as croissants and muffins. Use methods to entice customers to buy the initial, low-cost item of coffee by offering free samples, subscriptions or discounts, such as half-price refills.
Sell More In The Same Time
Quicker to prepare and faster the sell, grab-and-go items often have a higher turnover. A report from QSR Magazine found that quick-service restaurants that offered grab-and-go options reported a 20% increase in order throughput. Achieving these levels would result in a considerable boost in sales for any food service business.
The key to creating a highly profitable grab-and-go menu is to find products that can be prepared quickly and presented in a way that looks appetising to the consumer whilst waiting to be purchased.
Flexi-Working Has Created Flexi-Eating
The emergence of flexible working hours that increased during the pandemic looks like they're here to stay. Not only have people's meal times changed, but they can also even change daily, and people are spending less time breaking to eat and exchanging this time for more personal time. A recent study unveiled that 70% of respondents spent 10 minutes or less on breakfast, and an astounding 95% spared less than 30 minutes for lunch.
Soon, the lunchtime rush will be a thing of the past. In its place is a constant steady trickle of customers who will likely be on a call with headphones in. Well, indeed, during working hours anyway, which accounts for most of the hour's people are awake. The perfect grab-and-go customers.
Conclusion: Stay Ahead of the Curve with Grab and Go
There's no denying the shift in consumer behaviour in recent years, and studies suggest that grab-and-go is often preferred by the generations that, if not already, will soon account for the majority of consumers.
This doesn't mean that traditional dining is dead. It will always have its place. We all have to sit down eventually! But grab-and-go presents an opportunity for food service businesses to sell more throughout the day, provide meals at a lower cost and with a higher margin and even increase customer spending with cross-selling. With the emergence of technology helping businesses launch and manage their grab-and-go products, it has never been more convenient for companies to provide convenience food.
How can Kafoodle help? Grab-and-go
In true grab-and-go style, we'll keep this short. Kafoodle is a kitchen management software that helps businesses manage all their ingredients and recipes to rapidly create menus and access all the nutritional, dietary and allergen information they need to safely serve food. Autogenerating compliant labels, food costs and much more. Kafoodle customers can then add all this data to digital QR code menus so that customers can filter, find and order the food they need on the go.
Talk to a member of the sales team today to book a demo.