One in three out of home meal visits are to-go

Almost a third of all out of home meal visits are now taken to-go with total FTG visits hitting their highest point across a three year period, MCA’s latest Food To Go tracker has found.

To-go visits reached 4.6bn in Q4 2019, up 7.9% on the same period in 2018, and a total year-on-year increase of 10.2%.

Coffee shops maintained its position as the leading breakfast channel for FTG (27%), and has also seen growth in the lunch day part, with over one in ten (11%) visits now to a coffee shop or café (up from 9% in 2018).

It also saw the largest share growth of snacking visits (from 13% to 15%), as healthier snack ranges like snack pots and fresh fruit increase the attractiveness of coffee shops at snacking occasions.

At lunch, Greggs maintained its top spot with 12% of visit share, and also grew its share at every daypart.

In response to a consumer drive to seek out competitively priced coffee and broader offerings, Mcdonalds has also continued to grow share across all day parts, whilst the likes of Costa and Starbucks have suffered a decline in share of breakfast to-go visits, falling by 2.3% and 0.4% respectively.

In contrast, reflective of the high concentration of FTG operators in London and overrepresentation of young professionals, ‘affluent consumers’ – those earning over £40k – are over-represented in the FTG market, with 22.5% of total visits.

In light of the findings, MCA predicts that tapping into key trends like health and sustainability whilst highlighting price and quality credentials will be paramount to attract this demographic.