Millennial appetite for convenience fuels food boom

Attest found consumers feel that weekly grocery costs have gone up by 7.7% since the last ONS statistics were published. The research, which included the views of hard to reach professional urban Millennials, showed that while price increases remain front of mind, there is high demand for new grocery, takeaway and restaurant delivery services.

Attest found that UK consumers are now spending an average of £61.14 on their weekly grocery bill, up from the £56.80 a week reported by the ONS in early 2016. This equates to annual grocery sales of £60.1bn. The survey also revealed that UK households spend £24.3bn a year eating out, and a further £26.5bn on takeaways and deliveries. Taken together these figures put the food and drink industry on course for annual sales of £111 billion in 2017.With 56% of consumers not ordering food from establishments that don’t deliver, this represents a nearly £15bn market opportunity for Britain’s delivery startups and the takeaway industry.

Attest surveyed 1,000 respondents across the UK. Each answered a 22-question survey and the insights have been developed into the 2017 Food and Drink Consumer Trends Report.  Consumers revealed attitudes to food shopping, ordering in and eating out:

• The traditional supermarket weekly shop retains its hold; 50% visit stores, 14% go online and 36% spend sporadically on an ‘as needed’ basis with different grocers
• However, 22%, say they are actively considering switching to AmazonFresh; although a third were not aware of the offering and 15% had no intention of using it
• Although 27% of consumers never eat out, an easy-to-order takeaway beats all other forms of convenience food; 59% order takeaways once a week, 17% order twice
• Nationwide, 56% will go elsewhere if a takeaway is unable to deliver, rising to 61% for millennials, representing a huge opportunity still remaining for delivery start-ups.
• The survey found the trend for gourmet-to-go can insulate consumers from the ingredients they eat; whilst 31% of those surveyed said they could make all manner of exotic cocktails with no recipe, only 23% were able to correctly identify a bulb of fennel

Jeremy King, CEO and Founder of Attest, comments:

“Our report shows there are a wealth of new trends and opportunities for continued innovation and growth in the food and drink industry. This is particularly true with more affluent, urban and younger consumers, where trends are evolving faster, with greater values at stake. The winners will be organisations who have the ability to detect, explore and act on each of these evolving consumer needs, at an ever-increasing pace. It’s time for food and drink companies to start evolving at the same pace as their consumers!”

Attest found that UK consumers are now spending an average of £61.14 on their weekly grocery bill, up from the £56.80 a week reported by the ONS in early 2016. This equates to annual grocery sales of £60.1bn. The survey also revealed that UK households spend £24.3bn a year eating out, and a further £26.5bn on takeaways and deliveries. Taken together these figures put the food and drink industry on course for annual sales of £111 billion in 2017.With 56% of consumers not ordering food from establishments that don’t deliver, this represents a nearly £15bn market opportunity for Britain’s delivery startups and the takeaway industry.

For grocery brands, pricing is very influential. 21% of consumers said price rises meant they had already switched from a favourite brand. Yet 28% will only switch if they see a rise of 10% (or greater) on an item, suggesting consumers will pay a premium to keep enjoying brands they know and love.