Consumer Foodservice

Street stalls/kiosks benefited from the normalisation of consumers’ daily routine outside of the home in 2023, with chained tea street stalls leading the surge. While other formats of street stalls/kiosks, such as those offering braised snacks, fried…

In 2023, self-service restaurants experienced a revival of its growth rate, following the challenges posed by the COVID-19 lockdown the previous year. However, the average spend per transaction continued to decline, which was primarily linked to the…

In 2023, limited-service restaurants in China saw a robust recovery in terms of both value sales and volume transactions, benefiting from the relatively low base of 2022, when consumer foodservice establishments were considerably impacted by…

In 2023, full-service restaurants rebounded from the COVID-19 lockdowns experienced in 2022. However, there was a decline in the spend per transaction during the year, which can primarily be attributed to the overall economic downturn. The…

In 2023, consumer foodservice in China saw a robust recovery in terms of value sales and transaction volumes, benefiting from the relatively low base of 2022, when consumer foodservice outlets were severely negatively impacted by prolonged periods of…

In the context of foodservice by location in 2023, there was a noticeable increase in the proportion of dining within retail, travel, leisure, and lodging locations compared with 2022. The primary reason for this shift was the impact of COVID-related…

In 2022, due to the resurgence of COVID-19 and the implementation of lockdowns, offline businesses were severely impacted, leading to a significant reduction in traffic and a high-single-digit decline in retail value sales of cafés/bars. Nonetheless,…

In 2023, tanghulu (sugar-coated fruits on a bamboo skewer) emerged as the most prominent snacking mega-trend in the entire food industry in South Korea. The popularity of tanghulu began with mukbang YouTubers who focused on ASMR content, creating…

The major storyline for self-service cafeterias in the US in 2023 was its continued rebound as pandemic-era health restrictions receded. Self-service cafeterias was particularly hard-hit in the depths of the pandemic, due to logistical concerns about…

In 2022 and 2023, independent self-service cafeterias demonstrated double-digit growth in retail value sales. The primary driver behind this success was the popularity of local Korean cuisine buffets, which provide a rich variety of options, and…

2022 and 2023 saw some of the highest rates of inflation that the US had experienced in years. As ingredients costs increased, and a tight labour market pushed labour costs higher, brands across limited-service restaurants increased menu prices to…

In alignment with the trends observed in 2022, the majority of limited-service restaurants (LSRs) witnessed a surge in menu prices during 2023, which was attributed to the repercussions of escalating raw materials costs and labour expenses. In 2023,…

While inflation affected customer traffic across consumer foodservice categories, full-service restaurants saw a stronger decline in traffic, as some consumers traded down to fast casual and fast food. While growth after the COVID-19 decline helped…

Traditional buffet-style family restaurants faced significant losses during COVID-19, due to concerns about close contact with many people. In particular, chained Korean buffet brands such as Season’s Table, which were popular amongst…

After three years of having at least a period of time in the year when COVID-19-related restrictions affected restaurant visits, many operators looked forward to 2023 as the first year of a return to normalcy. High inflation and its reverberating…

Despite optimistic expectations of rapid recovery in consumer consumption following the COVID-19 pandemic, transaction growth in overall consumer foodservice in South Korea experienced a slowdown in 2023, exacerbated by prolonged inflation. The…

The sale of food through drive-through has continued to grow, and in 2023 remained elevated above the pre-pandemic level. The growth of drive-through ordering was fuelled by the desire to avoid human interaction during the pandemic, but has stuck as…

In 2023, the significant growth in sales of drive-through outlets was noteworthy. This method of fulfilment showed a triple-digit growth rate during COVID-19 in 2020, and still sustained double-digit current value growth in 2023. From a corporate…

2023 represented the first full year of a post-pandemic world for most people in the US, and the return to somewhat normal life helped to drive recovery for categories within cafés/bars that had struggled during the peak pandemic years. In…

Specialist coffee and tea shops is a mature category in South Korea, but continued to show dynamic growth in 2023. Previously, players in specialist coffee shops changed high unit prices, but advances in coffee machines led to standardisation of…